Beyond Me

“This is too hard.”

Often when presented with a task I sense God is calling me to do, that phrase comes to mind.

Today I realize in the past when this statement ran through my mind or came out of my mouth, a sense of shame came along with it.

After listening to a song by Toby Mac recently, I realized that God makes His assignments “too hard” for a reason.

So I’ll depend on Him.

I don’t need to be ashamed of my weakness or inadequacies.

There’s a saying that someone brought to me in my early days of writing when it seemed that getting published was an impossibility: “God doesn’t call the equipped. He equips the called.”

I’ve been reminded lately that it’s when weak people allow God to empower them to do great things for His Kingdom that He gets the glory.

God used inadequate people in the Bible. Often I have viewed the “characters” in the Bible as superheroes, but they had frailties just like me. And success depended on their staying vitally connected to the Lord.

What can follow after my proclamation of “This is too hard” is that instead of choosing to depend on the Lord, I abandon what God is calling me to do. At times I convince myself that certainly I was hearing wrong–that a task so difficult and one I feel unqualified to perform couldn’t possibly be from Him.

The truth He shows me in His Word is this: “I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:13 NIV)

Today I’m contemplating some of the tasks the Lord has called me to:

–to continue to work with acutely mentally ill patients when it seems I have little strength to do so.

–to proceed in playing guitar and singing to audiences of His choosing when my voice and music skills seem inadequate.

–to be totally transparent in writing about my hurts and heartaches and God’s faithfulness for national magazines.

–to seek publishing for a book I’ve written that reveals lies I’ve believed and truths from the Lord that have helped to free me when it seems many in Christian circles are sold on those lies.

As I determine once again to fully embrace God’s calling on my life, another saying comes to mind. This one I heard while working as a substitute teacher for middle and high schoolers—something I felt ill-equipped to succeed at. Often I felt like quitting, but I knew God had called me not just as a glorified babysitter to these students who too often displayed their worst behavior, but as a proclaimer of truth and as an encourager.

“God gives us the good days, so we won’t quit, and He gives us the hard days, so we’ll depend on Him.

I will continue to depend on Him on the hard days and in the difficult tasks He has assigned to me. And I will embrace that it’s OK and even a reason to celebrate God’s faithfulness and provision if these callings seem impossible or as the song says “beyond me.”

Here is the link to “Beyond Me” by Toby Mac