But, I Can't
4 Now the word of the LORD came to me saying, 5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations." 6 Then I said, "Ah, Lord GOD! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy." 7 But the LORD said to me, "Do not say, 'I am only a boy'; for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you. 8 Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD." 9 Then the LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the LORD said to me, "Now I have put my words in your mouth. 10 See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant." (Jeremiah 1:4-10)
How many times a week do we encounter difficulties that cause us to say, “I can’t”? How often do we look at ourselves and see only our limitations? How often are we so paralyzed by these thoughts and feelings that we become stuck in a cycle of inaction?
When God called Jeremiah to serve as God’s prophet, Jeremiah, like so many who were called before him and since, was stuck on the reasons (or excuses) that he felt ineligible and inadequate to live into that call.
Sometimes we, too, find ourselves in situations and circumstances that make us doubt our ability to handle them. No matter our source for news, we are inundated with problems and challenges that are too big for us to solve: climate change, the growing numbers of the working poor and rising homeless populations, food deserts, race relations, devastating natural disasters, threats of war, surging violence in our communities and even our schools, the ever-changing status of COVID-19, and so so many more. Even the realities of our personal lives can cause us to throw up our hands and say, “I can’t”, “I’m not smart enough, talented enough, rich enough, strong enough”, “I’m not enough to fix this”. And we’re right! We, on our own, are not enough. And God doesn’t promise to make us strong enough, talented enough, smart enough, or any of those things. God promises, as God did for Jeremiah, to be with us and to deliver us. This might not sound very comforting - after all, if we’re being delivered, that means we’ve been in some mess - but it should give us peace. We face nothing on our own. God doesn’t promise to remove our limitations, but God uses our limitations to show God’s limitless capacity to bless us with what we may not even know we need and to draw other limited people, like us, to discover God’s power for themselves.
1 In you, O LORD, I take refuge; let me never be put to shame. 2 In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline your ear to me and save me. 3 Be to me a rock of refuge, a strong fortress, to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress. 4 Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and cruel. 5 For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O LORD, from my youth. 6 Upon you I have leaned from my birth; it was you who took me from my mother's womb. My praise is continually of you.(Psalm 71:1-6)
