I locked my keys in the car on the first day of medical school. My phone, my purse, my ID, all of it, sitting on the passenger seat while I stood in the parking lot in my white coat with nothing to prove who I was. I had worked five years to get to that check-in table. And in the moment I needed to hand someone my identification, I had none.
They let me in anyway. Not because I could prove I belonged there. Because my name was already on the list.
Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress when the angel of Yahweh found him. Not on a threshing floor, in the open, where wheat is supposed to be beaten. In a pit, hidden, hoping the Midianites wouldn’t notice enough grain to bother stealing. That’s where God spoke.
The angel of Yahweh came and sat under the oak which was in Ophrah… and Gideon his son was beating out wheat in the wine press, to hide it from the Midianites. The angel of Yahweh appeared to him, and said to him, “Yahweh is with you, you mighty man of valor!” Gideon said to him, “O, my lord, if Yahweh is with us, why then has all this happened to us?”… Yahweh looked at him, and said, “Go in this your might, and save Israel from the hand of Midian. Haven’t I sent you?” He said to him, “O, Lord, how shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” Yahweh said to him, “Surely I will be with you.” (WEB)
God calls him a mighty warrior while he’s hiding in a hole. Not after he becomes brave. Before. Gideon corrects him twice. My family is the poorest. I am the least. As if God had misread the file. But God isn’t naming Gideon’s present. He’s naming what Gideon will become because God is the one doing the sending.
You may be looking at your own file right now. The score, the class rank, the thing someone said about you that you can’t stop replaying. And you’ve concluded that whoever accepted you into this made a mistake. That if they really knew, they’d take it back.
God’s name for you was never based on what fear has reduced you to today. It was settled before you stood in that parking lot with nothing in your hands.
Reflect
What’s the evidence you keep presenting to God for why He picked the wrong person?
Where have you let a hard season convince you that God’s call on you was a misunderstanding rather than a decision?
What would you do today if you actually believed you didn’t need to feel ready first?
Prayer
Father, You call me by what You’re making me into, not by what fear has reduced me to today. I confess I’ve handed You my transcript like it’s evidence against Your judgment, arguing my case the way Gideon argued his. Show me where I’ve mistaken feeling unqualified for actually being unwanted. Remind me that You sent me before I could prove I deserved it. Today, let me do the next faithful thing without waiting to feel ready first. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Before You Go
Where in your training right now do you feel like the least likely person for this? Tell me in the comments, I read every one.
And if you know someone standing in their own parking lot convinced they don’t belong, send this to them. Sometimes the reminder isn’t for us. It’s for who we hand it to next.