Excerpt from the book “(Un)Qualified” pages 4 and 6, by Stephen Furtick, Multnomah Books, copyright 2016 Stephen Furtick.

Have you ever thought about who — or what — truly has the ability to qualify you? Who has the ultimate right to determine if you are a success or a failure? …

We constantly analyze and summarize each other. We compare people to our standards — spoken or unspoken — to see how they measure up. Then we accept them or reject them; we praise them or criticize them; we revere them or ridicule them. We all secretly administer exams in the university of our own opinions.

This makes me think about: “God does not call the qualified; rather, he qualifies the called.” (This phrase is actually on the back cover of the book, which is perfect.) Calling the unqualified has always been God’s specialty. The only hero in the Bible is Jesus. Everyone else is a normal person. Review Ecclesiastes 3, and ask yourself “what season am I in?”

Exodus 3:11 (NIV)
¹¹ But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (NIV)
⁹ But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. ¹⁰ That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.