Day Twenty-Five

Day Twenty–Five // March 17 // Available

“In God’s kingdom, calling trumps credentials every time! God does not call the qualified. He qualifies the called. And the litmus test isn’t experience or expertise. It’s availability and teachability. If you are willing to go when God gives you a green light, He will take you to inaccessible places to do impossible things.” – Mark Batterson –

We know it’s true. God doesn’t use the best, but the most available and teachable. But in a world with more than can ever be done and opportunities that forever abound, how do we allow our feet to go where Christ wants them to go? We have to breathe and take some of the pressure off. A missed opportunity does not mean that a door closes. God never gives up on us. He never quits wooing us. Literally, God is the “Hound of Heaven” who will never quit pursuing us. The test of availability is to honestly assess our lives and ask: “To what opportunities do we say yes and to what do we say no?” We can so busy our lives with good

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things that we miss the opportunity for better things that come our way. Likewise, we can be so locked into an agenda or thought pattern, that we are not available when life changing moments appear.

To be the feet of Christ means we earnestly desire to go where Christ wants us to go. Maybe during these days of Lent, we need to be honest about what keeps us from being available: • Our need for control. We are afraid to surrender because we have a sneaking suspicion that God will ask us to do something that we don’t want to do. So, we keep our options open and fear committing ourselves to opportunities that arise. We fail to see that giving God control gives us freedom to try and to fail with grace. • Our fear of the unknown. We don’t like what we can’t see, know, or understand. Rather than owning the mystery of life; and searching and digging deeper, we keep God at arm’s length. • Our looking back instead of forward. We are always looking over our shoulder, beating ourselves up over the past, thinking about what happened rather than what could happen. We forget that, with God, every day is new and that there is always hope!

Maybe during Lent, we should rework an old hymn. Maybe we should change “Lord, We are Able” to “Lord, We are Available.” And dare to be the feet of Christ – people who will go where He sends us!