As I pondered the new theology training course I’d be teaching collegians every Saturday, I began to realize what a huge task this was going to be.

What will the format look like? How many lessons should it be? What discussion-fostering questions should I ask? I brought this to the Lord and asked for wisdom. Theology is a massive topic—some theologians spend their entire lives studying just one point in theology, and yet theology is made up of thousands of points.

God answered my prayer, but in a way I did not expect. I was out running one day (for some odd reason my most rich times of fellowship with God have been when I’m sweating and puffing!) and suddenly, like a sleeper roused from a dark slumber, my arrogance was unmasked, more real than the oxygen in my lungs strained for. Questions began to fill my thoughts. “Who do I think I am? What on earth do I think I am doing? I, the mortal, am going to tell students what the Immortal is like? I, the sinner, am going to expound on God the sinless? I, the finite, am going to represent God the Infinite?”

A sword of conviction invaded my heart and my gross impertinence suddenly covered me like tar. Here I was, asking God to help me with the breakdown of the lesson and I hadn’t even once considered the absurdity of the frail, ephemeral Seth trying to elaborate on God Almighty who sits in the heavens and does whatever He pleases! This is God who stands in the presence of burning creatures who cry out, “Holy! Holy! Holy!” for all eternity! This is God who knows every act, every motive, every deed, both nefarious and sweet, godly and wicked. And I’m going to represent Him to others?

A second wave of conviction hit me the very next day. This time I was sitting at my dining room table working on the introduction to the theology course and suddenly my fingers on the keypad halted. I left my chair, got down on my face and asked God, “Why would you have me do this? I am unworthy! I am a sinner! How can I possibly even succeed in one step of this task?” The pleas turned to tears and then I remembered God’s grace. Grace that covers every sin. Grace that makes me as accepted by God as His own Son, Jesus Christ. Grace that becomes a channel through which God can do awesome wonders.

I turned to Jeremiah chapter one and read God’s commission to Jeremiah to prophesy: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations” (Jer 1:5). And how did young Josiah reply to this task too awesome for him? "Alas, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, because I am a youth” (Jer 1:6). Instead of jumping at the opportunity like a foolish, ambition-driven wannabe, Jeremiah shrank from the mission, fully cognizant of his absolute unworthiness, not unlike Moses at the burning bush over 800 years earlier (Ex 3:11).

But God would not be talked out of this. "Do not say, 'I am a youth,' because everywhere I send you, you shall go, and all that I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you” (Jer 1:7). Notice how God offers Jeremiah two priceless assurances of comfort: 1) I will tell you what you are to say and 2) I will be with you wherever you go. Jeremiah will receive God’s message and God’s presence. It is not Jeremiah’s message or Jeremiah’s presence that will empower him to proclaim the message. It is God’s.

The reason we often shrink back from divine duty is because we are so focused on our own abilities or lack of them that we either swell up in arrogance until we explode in failure or we become so engrossed with our weakness that we sink into the mire of hopeless fear and never put the hand to the plow.

There is one of three stages a man or woman may find himself in when God commissions him. The first stage is the stage of arrogance. This man thinks he can do the job because of his skill, training, knowledge or experience. But like the plumber who thinks he can fix the Niagara Falls, this man will not walk ten steps before he ends up on his face. The second stage is one step better but still does not bridge the gap. This man recognizes his sin and sees his unworthiness—but lo, this is all he sees! He is as consumed with his weaknesses as the first man is with his qualities. Though he has accurately diagnosed his inability and unworthiness for achieving the task, he forgets that they are not his abilities and virtues that will accomplish the task but God’s.

The third man sees his weaknesses but also embraces something else: God’s grace. He knows that the grace of God is the trough through which all the strength and ability he will ever need will flow to him. Jeremiah finally realized this when God stretched out His hand, touched his mouth and said, "Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. See, I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant (Jer 1:9-10).”

Jeremiah and Moses began in stage two and ended up in stage three. For this reason God used them both. May He do the same for you!