When
have you felt unqualified to do something for God (e.g., give an
extemporaneous speech or teach a class of Junior High students), but
did it anyway? How did you get past the fear? What challenge is
facing you now that you can’t handle alone? (Serendipity Bible
10th Anniversary Edition, page 1266-7).
Qualified
defined:
Meeting
the proper standards and requirements and training for an office,
position or task (WordWeb Pro);
fitted
(as by training or experience) for a given purpose : COMPETENT :
having complied with the specific requirements or precedent
conditions (as for an office or employment) : ELIGIBLE
(Merriam-Webster).
Let’s
get one thing abundantly clear, the challenges presented in this
life--no matter what one’s field or specialty--guarantee that no
one is completely qualified to meet all contingencies that can
impinge upon human experience. For example, astronauts undergo
extremely rigorous and exacting training, but clearly unanticipated
things can happen in outer space that no one can be adequately
trained for. So there is a sense in which none of us are totally
qualified even in our field or specialty. To assume otherwise
automatically opens us up to the risks of arrogant blindness. It can
even be said that if one is engaging only in activities for which
they are totally and completely qualified, then they are shutting
themselves off from experiences necessary for continued learning and
growth. Sometimes we sneer at those we label “perpetual students.”
In fact, that’s what we all must be.
Now
as to the question regarding the existence of some anxiety when
undertaking tasks for God, I can only say that if you never encounter
this anxiety, then the tasks you are being called to meet are of your
own selection rather than God’s. God, as Creator, puts us in
situations where creativity is called for amidst the unfamiliar and
unexpected. Such a perspective is required for us to push past angst
and anxiety and to move forward to accomplishment. Faith is not
necessary in Elysian Fields of certainty, but rather in a world impinged by uncertainty and challenges not neatly delimited.
Paradoxically, in this sense, the absence of all anxiety is an
indicator of shortsightedness and should itself rightly be the surest
source of it.
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