Back in the eighties, my dad got a job in computer programming by accident. He happened to be in the right office at the right time. He wasn’t there looking for a job, but the man he was there to talk to needed a position filled, so he offered him a job on the spot. Though my dad would go on to take classes, read books, and practice coding in lots of different languages, at the time, he had no experience. He had taken a few community college classes and was really interested in programming, but he definitely wasn’t qualified. Have you ever felt like that? You know there’s someone better equipped for the task, but for whatever reason, you’re the one who was chosen.
Recently, we were filming The Heritage Project in Moroccan Arabic. We had to work with the translator on some parts of the script that needed to be adjusted. As we were adjusting these parts, though, we also had to take into consideration certain editing restrictions. On top of that, the translator didn’t speak English; she spoke Moroccan Arabic and Spanish. So on top of thinking like an editor, I had to speak Spanish (which I’m far from fluent in!) I was well aware of my inexperience in both those areas, and I felt completely unqualified to even be in the room working on the task at hand, but for whatever reason, there I was and I had a job to do.
I think God loves to put us in situations like this, where our feeling of being “unqualified” is undeniable. Why? Because despite our lack, He shows up. In 2 Corinthians 12:9, God tells Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” When we know we can’t do something in our own strength, we tend to rely more willingly on God. It’s a simple truth, but in the moment of feeling unqualified, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and forget. Often, we don’t breathe that peaceful sigh of relief until everything “works out” and we see the end result.
But in the second part of verse 9, Paul makes a proactive decision: “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” I’ll be honest. Paul’s resolution to boast and be glad about his weakness is not one that comes easily to me. I think it looks different for each of us, but there are always areas of our lives where we would prefer not to feel weak or unqualified. Obviously, being strong, prepared, and in control feels much better! But God is inviting us to embrace the uncomfortable truth that we are never truly in control. Things will go much better if we release what’s out of our control into His hands and put our confidence in Him instead of ourselves.
As IMM navigates this crazy year and all the struggles that come with it, it’s easy to feel uncertain about the future. We are praying for more team members, continued support, new opportunities to share our programs, and direction. With the small team and big goals that we currently have, it can be easy to feel uncertain about the future. But I believe this a season for IMM (and perhaps for you) to lean into that uncertainty, boast in our feeling unqualified, and more heavily rely on God.