I’ve noticed that many times when we see someone doing something well, we quickly assume that they have always been good at whatever it is they do. We can assume that they are naturally disposed to be….__________ [you fill in the blank].
For example, we assume that the straight A student in our class has always been a straight A student, and is naturally smart, or that the person who is bold in their witness for Christ has always been strong in their faith.
Yet frequently our assumptions are very wrong. God has a history of using seemingly unlikely candidates accomplish His purposes and to show His awesome might to use even the weakest of vessels!
I have seen this commonly in how people relate to me. I believe some make assumptions about my past based on what they see in my life now, and more specifically within my role as a campus minister with Every Nation Campus Ministries at Florida A & M University .
Most people don’t realize how unlikely a candidate I really am to do what I’m doing! You might be surprised to know the following about me:
1. I was voted “Most Quiet” my senior year of high school by my classmates. (Not the most flattering Senior superlative.)
2. From kindergarten to 10th grade I only had 2 Black people in my classes (some years I had none).
3. I had more questions than answers growing up, and was outstandingly skeptical.
4. In my Public Speaking class sophomore year of college I would feel so terrified (in front of 15-20 people) that I thought I may literally freeze up when it was my turn to give a 2 min. speech.
5. I didn’t even know what “campus ministry” was until I was well into my college experience.
I could go on, but hopefully you get my drift.
While the changes God has made in me as a person over the years are remarkable, the fact is that my story isn’t that odd if we look at history and the Bible.
God has always used unlikely people to do unexpected and extraordinary things: He took a cocky teenager and over time turned him into the right hand man of a world leader (Genesis 37-41); He took a foster child raised in affluence, with communication issues to confront the most powerful leader in the world at that time (Exodus 1-14); He used a unmarried teenage girl to birth the Son of God into the world (Luke 1-2); He used an ex gang-leader of Christian-killers to plant churches all over the Roman Empire! (Acts 6, 9-28)
God uses ordinary, unlikely people to do extraordinary things every day. You could be one of them. Make yourself available to God, and when He nudges you to do something, do it.