Someone I loved once told me I wasn’t book-smart. Said it plainly, not even meaning it as cruelty, more like a fact he thought I needed to know before I wasted my time. I believed it long enough that every study plan I built afterward was really an apology. As if the right system could finally make me the kind of smart he meant.
Moses stood in front of a burning bush that wasn’t being consumed, and his response to the call of God was to list his qualifications for failure.
Moses said to Yahweh, “O, Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before now, nor since you have spoken to your servant; for I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.” Yahweh said to him, “Who made man’s mouth? Or who makes one mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Isn’t it I, Yahweh? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth, and teach you what you shall speak.” (WEB)
Notice what God doesn’t do. He doesn’t hand Moses a speech coach. He doesn’t wait for Moses to become fluent before commissioning him. He asks a question that reframes the entire objection: who do you think made the mouth you’re complaining about? God isn’t offended by the limitation. He built it into the very story He’s about to write.
Here’s what I missed for years. I kept treating my learning style like a defect to be corrected before God could use me, when the whole time He was asking me to bring Him the stammering version, the version that needed three passes through the material instead of one, the version that wasn’t going to be anyone’s definition of book-smart.
You don’t need to become a different kind of student before this call is real. You need to bring the one you actually are.
Reflect
What version of yourself do you think you need to become before God can use you?
What has someone said about your mind or your capability that you’ve quietly built your identity around?
What changes today if you believed God made you on purpose, stammer and all?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, You made the mouth I keep apologizing for and the mind I keep trying to fix before I bring it to You. I confess I’ve believed that my slowness disqualifies me, that I need to become fluent before I’m useful. Reveal where I’ve confused a limitation with a disqualification. Teach me that You don’t remove my weakness before using me, You work through it. Today, let me show up as I actually am, not as I think I should be. Amen.
Before You Go What’s the one thing about how you learn that you’ve been most ashamed of? I’d love to hear it.
If someone in your life needs to hear that they don’t need to become someone else first, this one’s for them.