“I would love to do _________ but I am just not qualified.” How many times have you heard that, or said it yourself? Did you ever stop to ask your Maker, how He feels about that? In 1960, Dave Rudenis was walking to work in Pinellas Park, Florida, where he worked as a mechanic. He saw a boy sitting on the curb. A day later, the boy was still there. Dave inquired and found that the boy's mother had dropped him off there, and told him to wait until she returned. She never came back.
Dave wasn’t qualified as a social worker, or a caregiver; he wasn’t wealthy, but he knew how to care. He took that 12-year-old Bill Wilson into his home, and fed him, and prayed. Then he sent him to a summer camp, where an unqualified evangelist led him to Christ. This unqualified boy went on to a Christian College, then started a Sunday School in St Petersburg, FL for the most unqualified children he could locate. This pioneer bus ministry eventually led him to the Quad-City area in Iowa, then to Brooklyn NY where he once again reached out to the most vulnerable and hurting children he could find. In 1988, he launched an international Sunday School effort, to reach the children no one else can reach.
photo of Bill Wilson via Joachim S. Muller on Flickr
In 2019, this unqualified rejected boy led the largest Sunday School in the world, with a total attendance of over 220,000 children per week, worldwide. And, they make a focused effort to visit every child s home, using mostly unqualified youth as Teachers in these efforts. I am not suggesting that it is wrong, or bad, to seek out education and training for any vocational pursuit. What I am asking you is this; What has God called YOU too, and what is stopping you from moving into it? What could God do with you, if you leaned into what He designed you for? God is not hampered by our perception of qualification, or he wouldn’t choose an abandoned child to run the largest Sunday School in the world.
But... He did use an abandoned child, to reach abandoned children. He is a REDEEMER...
That means along with other things, that He loves to take the darkest parts of our life and use them to shine His brilliance through. Many times, the very things that we think disqualify us, are in fact the very things He uses to build His Kingdom the best. The lowliest rejected of the sons of Jesse, became one of the greatest King of Israel. The stammering Moses was the voice that led Israel out of Egypt. The denying Peter became an astounding Evangelist. What disqualifies you? Because in God’s Economy, that might be the exact thing He chooses to use.
You were made for a purpose. Purpose gives vision, and vision produces hope. Hope excites us, and propels us toward a goal. Far too many people today, struggle with forward motion because they do not understand the motivational value of purpose., and life becomes meaningless.
The question worth asking, is not what I am qualified for. It is, “What is my purpose?”
Ask the Designer, the One Who made you. Go ahead, try it. Ask Him. He will answer you, perhaps not with what you expected, but it will bring hope.
Oh- and write it down. Writing down the purpose God shows you for your life, engages another dynamic in bringing it to pass.
-Steve Stutzman, written and released in the August 2022 Strait Path's newsletter