Perfect Candidate

In the movie Gridiron gang, Sean Porter (The Rock) leads a group of juvenile prisoners to football championship finals. They lose the match but are not called losers.  Porter started this football program after realizing that a huge percentage of the young men who were released from prison would end up in prison again within a few months.  He is awfully criticized for wanting to rehabilitate “rejects” who contribute no good to society except harm.  I love this movie because it not only illustrates what people can achieve when someone believes in them; but also how the small and insignificant are perfect candidates for God to illustrate his power.  In the first practice session, Sean Porter says this to the Mustangs (as they were named); “You do it my way, not your way. Your way got you here and you’re here because you lost.  Right now you are all losers, but if you accept the challenge and stick with the program, you are all going to be winners in the end”.  I believe that’s where I was. I might not have been in prison and I wasn’t all that bad; but I was a loser before Christ.  I might not have heard Jesus say those words to me, but I think he was saying it to me to show me where he took me.  I don’t know where you are, but if you’re a loser, then you are the perfect candidate for success.

When we look at great people in history, we find that most of them came from humble, insignificant families, were not of noble birth, were unskilled, despised and we can fill the list with many negative descriptions.  Even Jesus’ disciples were not people of high positions in society, nor possessed high degrees in education.  Having healed a lame man, Peter and John are before the council of scribes, rulers and elders and explain that Jesus, whom they had crucified, healed the man.  “Now when they (rulers) saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus” Acts 4:13.  They were little people in the eyes of man, but the Lord chose to use them instead of the well-learned scribes whom the people held in high esteem.  So we look at Abraham who is too old to have children, but is chosen to be the Father of nations.  Its not that there weren’t other men across the face of the earth who could have children and in the absence of one God chose Abraham. God chose Abraham nonetheless. Moses gives a lot of reasons why he isn’t the one to save the Israelites in Egypt.  He can’t speak, he killed one of them a while back, he isn’t a king, he isn’t a warrior, etc. And the response from God is a resounding: “You are exactly what I am looking for!”  When God is about to destroy the Midianites who are describes to be “like locusts in number, both they and their camels could not be counted” he uses Gideon, who is the from the weakest clan and the least in his family – as if that is not enough he uses 300 men who didn’t need to know how to fight, but to blow horns.  When God wants to destroy Goliath, a great warrior he uses a teenager who is the youngest of his brothers and isn’t even supposed to be at the war.  All of this is to display his power, so that no man may boast. 

So are you unskilled, from a poor family, not a great speaker, not popular, not extremely pretty or handsome (in the eyes of man), uneducated, or any other thing that you think disqualifies you to be used by God for his glory? If yes, then you are the perfect candidate to be used by God. You are exactly what He is looking for.  I am by no means saying that God does not use those with doctorates, are of noble birth, etc; or that people should not aspire to be educated and of high esteem in their fields.  But there is always someone better than yourself, and even when you are a scholar and you’re given a task by God that you think is beyond you and should be given to someone of higher prestige, God wants you!  Because “little is much, when God is in it”.   God seems to look for the smallest tool to bring about his purpose and will in the world.  He takes the small tool, and gives it tremendous ability to do the task given.  He makes the jawbone of a donkey to be strong enough to kill 1000 men.  I don’t mind being a jawbone in the hands of God. 

Stay humble in the eyes of God, but do not look down on yourself, as one who is despised and he will surely lift you up. He will continue to take you higher and higher.  When He says GO, know that he has deemed you the perfect candidate and will give you the skills required to complete the given task.  My pastor said it is this way: “ do not compare how you feel on the inside, with how someone or something looks like on the outside”

God Bless you all. Much Love!