God sized tasks and God sized dreams

The other day a friend and I were doing a Bible study on the call of different people in the Bible into God's service. As we read it became apparent that everyone had an excuse on why they could not do what God asked them to do. It was very interesting. It was also very interesting that most of them felt very insecure about what God was asking them to do. They wondered aloud to God if they were good enough people to do what they asked, if they were polished enough speakers to stand up in front of groups, if they were they were too young or too old to do what God was calling them to do. Great leaders like Moses, Isaiah, and Peter were scared that if they tried to do what God asked them to do they would fail. God asked them to those things anyway.

It is interesting to note what God does and what God does not say to the people he calls. God does not tell them that they are wrong about their limitations. He does not tell them that they need a little bit of therapy. He does not accept their excuses as valid. How does God respond? Very often, God simply says, "I will go with you", or "I will help you", or "I will make you into the person that you need to be." God does mess with "our reality" about ourselves, but he does not leave in the mess and mire of self-deprecation either.

Part of the reason God does not argue with the great leaders of the Bible when they offer up their shortcomings and inabilities as excuses is that he does not call us to manageable tasks. He calls us to God-sized dreams, and God-sized tasks. Part of committing to the way of Jesus is committing to something that is bigger than yourself. God does not argue with our excuses because he knows that the things that he wants to do in us and through us are bigger than what we can handle on our own. But then, he tells us that he is not going to leave us alone. It is God's presence with us that makes all the difference.

It is also interesting to note when God approaches the people that he calls out to serve him in the Bible. He does this calling in the basic, ordinary moments of life. When Moses is shepherding, God speaks to him through a bush. God speaks to Peter about being his disciple on a fishing boat�at Peter�s run-of-the mill workplace. God comes to Gideon while he is at his second job on the swing shift. God wakes up Jonah in the middle of an afternoon nap.

God does the same for us. He comes to us in the ordinariness of our everyday lives, and he calls us to something bigger than what we are living. We meet someone at work that challenges us to be more open about sharing our faith. We drive by a need in our community and we say, �Someone should help out with that!,� and then we realize that someone is us. We see a need in helping in the nursery, children�s church, or with youth group at church, but we wonder if we are good with children or youth. Listen! God is whispering in your ear, "I will be with you! I will help you! When you go and do on my behalf you do not go alone. I will give you the power and the strength."

In fact, the one clear way that I have discovered to truly experience God�s power and God's presence in your life is to stand up when he calls and say, "Here am I, send me!" Doesn't God�s command to bring his love to the entire world end, "and I am with you always, even to the end of the age" ? (Matt 28:18-20).

The same is true in our church as a whole. God is calling us to dream big. He asks us to see a future that is not necessarily visible yet. Some of these tasks seem manageable. Some of these tasks seem impossible. But thank God as we move forward with God that we serve a God who specializes in the impossible, and yet meets us right where we are at in the ordinary moments of our everyday lives. Let us listen for the God-sized tasks and God-sized dreams that God has in front of us, and move boldly into the future that God has in store, knowing that he will do lots more than we could ever imagine or ask Him to do.