How We’re Learning
By Kori Yates
Finding your heart’s desire
What is that one thing that burns in your heart to do? That thing that just won’t let you go?
Have you ever had such a thing? Surely, we all have. They come at interesting moments when we least expect them and usually make us feel wholly unqualified and just a bit scared.
I had one of those moments when I decided to join the Marine Corps. At the ripe old age of 31, I wasn’t in the majority of recruits they sign up. I even required a waiver just for them to let me in, but I knew I was supposed to be there for some crazy reason. About a week before my first day in the Marine Corps, I had started to question quitting my job, putting my stuff in storage, and making the cross-country trek. I was a bit intimidated.
Showing up and running through that first week, I wondered whether I was truly qualified to be there. Everything hurt. I wasn’t as fast as some, didn’t score as high as some on obstacles and leadership scenarios, and trying to stay awake in class was no joke! I questioned whether I should be there at all. Was I really cut out for this? Did I really have what it takes?
I did. I had Jesus.
He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.” (Exodus 3:12)
I am surely not Moses, and God has not called me to lead His people out of slavery in Egypt, but there are many similarities between Moses and me. After spending 40 years living in Pharaoh’s house then spending 40 years in Midian herding sheep, Moses was 80 when God called him to go lead the people out of slavery. He also had knowledge and supposedly some maturity but he wasn’t so sure he was qualified for the task. In fact, in this same chapter, you will read multiple instances where Moses told God the reasons he wasn’t qualified to do the job.
I remember those conversations, because I have had them too. I have laid awake at night in my rack thinking, “I will never make it through tomorrow.” God’s response to me was the same thing He said to Moses: “I will be with you.”
That was the day I learned to jump.
It was confidence course day in our training. We were faced with obstacles to overcome individually from low elements like jumping from one log to another a bit higher and further away to a high ropes course that ended with a zip line. It was my day.
I had gone to sleep the night before wondering if I was qualified to be there. And on confidence course day, God showed me I was.
I didn’t come in first and I didn’t land every part of the course perfectly, but I jumped. Those logs that got taller and further apart were what God used to challenge me and encourage me at the same time. I climbed onto the first one and took a jump to the second. I just kept going. I didn’t look down. I didn’t stop to ponder about whether I would make it or if I could do it, I just went. I jumped. Over and over again.
I ended up completing training, but what I learned most of all was to jump.
I have encountered moment after moment since then when God was calling me to do something and all He was asking was for me to jump. He wasn’t asking me to improve my skills, education, networking ability, etc. He just wanted me to jump. He wanted me to follow Him because He called me. Not because I was qualified, brilliant, or hugely capable, but because He was going with me.
Just like Moses and his pondering at the bush, I am tempted to ponder as well and play out in my brain the millions of scenarios that could happen. But God has given us the freedom to jump, because He has already gone before and certainly goes with.
How to Jump:
- Spend time with Jesus – If we don’t know what He’s asking, we don’t know what to do. He’s asking something of all of us.
- Remember – We are NOT qualified (ever), but HE is (always).
- Trust – He has always been there. This time will be no different.
- Expect – Watch for the amazing things He does in and through us. It will be awesome!
Your Turn:
What is God asking you to do that seems too big, too hard, too whatever? This week, do that.
Prayer:
Lord, help me to be BRAVE and jump. If I feel unqualified, incapable, overwhelmed, help me to remember that it’s not about me. It’s about an all-powerful God who goes before and with me.
Other Scriptures:
Exodus 3
