An expert knowledge of our own finitude becomes an opportunity for humility, dependence, and wisdom. As we give ourselves grace to be imperfect, resting in God’s merciful posture toward us rather than our own competencies and successes, we can simultaneously give this same grace and compassion to others.

We all know that God uses his people to bless others. I’m sure you’ve been there—that perfectly timed conversation where all the words were right and were said at the right time, and the runway was cleared for the good news to land and do its work. A glorious thing to behold and an honor to be a part of. At the same time, I’m sure you can remember when the exact opposite was true, and an untimely joke, your insensitivity or oversensitivity to an event, a poor split-second decision, or a misunderstanding sabotaged everything you were hoping to accomplish. How do we make sense of this maddening paradox of majestic successes scattered among our cringeworthy disappointments? After all, the list of reasons for our miscues is endless. If only we weren’t so intense, opinionated, forgetful, self-conscious, naive, uptight, eccentric, rigid, gullible, abrasive, sensitive, awkward, shy…and the list goes on and on. And on top of it all, most of these characteristics we’re just plain stuck with. They’re an indelible part of us.

The Paradox

Being an instrument of God means that we live in a paradox. On one hand, God does significant things through us to advance his kingdom, and on the other, we are acutely aware of how much better things could go if we weren’t constantly tripping over our own feet. We’re tempted to think that God’s kingdom would be so much bigger, so much better, and so much more efficient if we could just get out of his way!

However, the good news of the gospel is not that God has taken his children out of this fallen world or sheltered us from the inevitable results of living in it. God, in his wisdom, has decided not to tame our histories, take the edge off our personalities, standardize our preferences, nor abolish our limitations, weaknesses, deficits, and handicaps. Rather, the good news of the gospel is that God uses us and our messy lives rather than requiring the perfect and pristine. He operates within our finitude and frailty through the work and power of the Holy Spirit.

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