God's choice

People generally have a problem with God’s choice. Be it God’s choice of timing, God’s choice of calling, or God’s choice of people. When I was a teenager, I was convinced I was swapped at birth at the hospital cause my parents were worlds apart from how I saw things. They didn’t understand me, so I said. I grew up to realise that parents are generally the problem when you’re a teenager, no matter which pair you have. I still complain to my friend Sam that I should have been white, well cause I feel I should be married by now (she says at least I came close – Cf my complexion, lol.) And for some time, I struggled with God’s choice over what I should do with my life. Accepting God’s choice is generally a struggle because God doesn’t reason the way we do, He doesn’t see things the way we do, His thoughts and ways are higher.

We sometimes see this weakness in the Church pertaining the people God chooses to use. You know I think people would be more comfortable if preachers and teachers of the Word didn’t have any problems or issues of their own; if they had it all together, if they didn’t have weaknesses or make mistakes. I think we’re uncomfortable with the fact that God called other people just like us to be the ones who lead us. It probably would be easier had it been an angel or something like that. But we know how people can be, cause well, we are people and we know exactly how we can be. In fact, I also wish God could choose and use the people who have it together all the time, cause well it is quiet something to have God use you to fix other people’s problems while you’re stuck in your own mess. Kinda like Simon in Luke 5. Jesus saw Simon had a problem going on, He saw him washing his nets in disappointment; and instead of attending to Simon’s problem, He uses Simon and his problem to attend to the masses who were hungry for the Word. Only after had the people’s hunger been satisfied, was Simon’s issue attended to.

God used liars like Abraham, cheats like Jacob, drunkards like Noah, murderers like Moses, adulterers like David; He used a suicidal Elijah and a blood-thirsty Paul. These are all people we would wipe off of God’s list of ‘usables’ without so much as a thought. But thing is, it’s not ours to choose who God uses. God knew their mistakes and ability to make more when he chose them. I am not saying leaders shouldn’t be held accountable and shouldn’t live up to God’s standards, they should lead by example yes. What I am saying is that God’s choice is God’s choice, regardless of your judgement and opinion. Your father doesn’t stop being your father just because he’s a drunkard, ask Ham. David didn’t stop being king just because he slept with another man’s wife and plotted the man’s death. Sure, he suffered the consequences; he lost a child and opened a door for a curse over his family, but who he was in the eyes of God never changed; he remained the one after God’s own heart, Israel’s singer of songs. So where does the church get the authority to write off people God still considers worthy? Where do we come off holding up people’s sins against them which God has forgiven? How do we find it so easy to accept that God has forgiven us when we wrong but He has a hard time with other people’s ‘bigger’ sins? No wonder Jesus said “If anyone of you is without sin. Let him be the first to throw a stone at her” (John 8:7). Those men probably viewed her sin as ‘bigger’ cause they only told a white lie from time to time, or they sometimes looked at a woman lustfully but never really did anything. But to God, sin is sin, no sizes.

I’m not justifying niks as many might assume, just exposing a lack of understanding. Understanding God’s mercy, God’s gifts and calling which are irrevocable and a God who never changes His mind. I close with the words of Sarah Jakes (my latest obsession): “One detour doesn’t cancel our destination.”