Not in spite of but because of

A friend was recently called as the Elders Quorum President of his ward and as we talked about his new calling I could see the burden bearing down on him.

I thought about all the goodness I see in him and all the qualifications I see my friend possesses that make him such a great man and will make him a great EQP.  The enormity of the goodness I see in him dominates how I perceive him.

The irony I see is knowing that I view my friend more like the Lord sees him and seeing myself differently while simultaneously knowing that I am doing that.

I am SO keenly aware of my flaws, weaknesses, and the sometimes overwhelming feeling or sense of brokenness I feel.  I think there are many reasons why I feel unqualified to serve the Lord in the same capacity as my friend.  In fact I sometimes marvel the Lord would choose me for any calling.

While pondering all of that during the conversation with my friend, the Spirit brought back to my mind a lesson I learned under his tutelage long ago:

The Lord calls people to serve because of, not in-spite-of, who they are.

Sometimes I think I'm the exception to Heavenly Father's omniscience.  That somehow I managed to find some blind spot to His omniscience and hide there.  That He isn't aware of some great flaw or weakness I have.  That if He discovers the blind spot and finds out about me that I'll be ... I don't know ... "demoted".

That's just wrong-headed thinking and I know it.

The Lord knows (better than we do) how we think, how we reason, where our heart is, and how we make decisions.  We are not called to serve anywhere by accident.  The Lord needs exactly and precisely what we have to offer right now.  He is asking us to "lift where we stand".

We will surely improve and grow and be stretched in our calling as we serve faithfully.  We aren't called because we can become more useful at some point.  We are called because we are useful right now - in the glory of ALL of our brokenness.

Whether a calling is issued as a practical choice or through a spiritual "ah ha" moment, it is still an inspired call.  The Lord knew the mind of elders quorum president (or bishop or stake president) when they were called.  It is not by accident they were called to their calling.

The Lord chose that person for the same reason He chooses you for a calling - because of who they were at that moment.

That's a very different model for inspiration than I had previously.  Inspiration comes differently for each person, but the Lord knows each of us intimately.  With that knowledge, He can put the right people into the right places at the right time to accomplish His designs.

I imagine the tremendous joy the Lord feels watching His plan succeed because of (not in spite of) the inherent flaws of every single part of the system.

Our flaws are God-given.  Ponder about that and the implications.  The perfect creator intentionally gave each of us weaknesses as part of a plan designed specifically to bring me (and each of us) eternal joy.  Without all of those flaws, the plan would fail.

God's plan absolutely includes opportunities to choose to become more than I am now.  Because of the very same flaws that are necessary for the plan to succeed, sometimes it is hard for me to believe, despite the overwhelming evidence, that I am enough for Him because of who I am right now.