Confession 131: Unqualified

As I continue to maneuver through this job-hunting process, I have come to the realization that after investing over 50,000 dollars in higher education I am essentially unqualified to do anything!!  It's true.  One look at my resume would tell you that in an instant.  Here's how it starts:

Enthusiastic, certified English / Language Arts Teacher with seven years experience providing students with the self-discipline and communication skills necessary to achieve personal and professional goals.  Skilled educator with experience using constructivist, cooperative learning, and inquiry-based techniques to capture student interest and improve knowledge retention. Personable, respected school leader who builds rapport and communicates effectively with diverse audiences.

It's okay, until you get to my degrees--the product of the $50,000 of education.  B.A. in Secondary English Education and M.A. in Christian Education will just about get you a nickel and a cup of coffee in these tough economic times.  Employers want hard skills, none of which I seem to have.  And, as the face of education changes, my teaching license means less than it did when I started 10 years ago, although it is valid until the year 2110!  Don't worry--this isn't going to turn into the woes of the out-of-work English teacher--it's just a fact that in the eyes of those who have money for people to earn I happen to be unqualified to earn it.  I envy those people who have fixed their eyes on one goal and done all in their capacity to achieve it.  My husband is like that.  He felt the call to ministry at the age of 13 and has, with a few detours, followed it through ever since.  I think I tend to approach life more like a smorgasbord--try a little of this and then move onto that.  It's not that I don't have a goal--I felt both called to teaching and writing at an early age.  It's just that God has taken me to some very different places, for which I am grateful.

But here is what has occurred to me and continues to give me hope on this winding journey of what to do with my life.  In God's eyes, I am fully qualified to do whatever he has created me to do!  One of my favorite verses that I tell myself at least once a week is found in Jeremiah 29:11

"For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

God made us each unique, important, and highly qualified in the body of Christ.  Look at the people God has called throughout Scripture to act on his behalf.  None of them seemed "qualified" in human eyes.  Abraham was an old man, Moses was an outlaw with a stuttering problem, Jacob was a weasel, David was a skinny sheep herder, Mary was a teenage girl from the wrong side of town and Paul was one of the biggest bullies the church had yet to see.  Yet each of these individuals was fully qualified to carry out the task God laid before them, for God gave them everything they needed to succeed.  God does not ever look at our resume and pronounce us unqualified for the task at hand.  Instead, he sees our strengths and builds us up to carry out his will.  And so, in closing, I leave you with this passage from Hebrews 13:

^{May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the Sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever.  Amen.}

 ^{Blessings and Peace,}

^Sara