Gideon was just a farmer. But when the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he called him a mighty warrior.  I’m sure Gideon looked around thinking, Who is this angel talking to? Me? Surely he has got to be kidding. He’s got the wrong guy. I’m just a farmer. I don’t know how to fight. On top of that, I am the least in my family.

Judges 6:15 says, “‘Pardon me, my lord,’ Gideon replied, ‘but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.'” 

But God called him a mighty warrior, and God does not make mistakes.

God calls things that are not as though they are. How can He do that? Because He created everything. He created us. He knows us inside and out. He knows our flaws, failures, and weaknesses. But He also knows our strengths, talents, and capabilities. He sees our potential. He knows what we can be if we have God’s power in our lives.

We think we have to be something in order for God to use us. That is not true.

Picture a volleyball game. People are lined up to play and the captains are picking the teams. The Lord is a captain. Many of the people there to play are athletic. Others are popular, cool, and confident. You can tell by looking that some have the skills to really bump, set, and spike the volleyball. But there’s a little girl in the back that you can barely see. She isn’t athletic. She’s never even played volleyball. She’s young and inexperienced and has no skill set. But she wants to play worse than anybody else. She’s calling out as passionately as she can, “Pick me! Pick me! I want to play! Please, pick me!” And the Lord hears her.  He looks beyond the athletic, the cool, and popular. He looks at that little girl in the back of the line and says, “Come on sweetheart! I pick you! I want you to play on My team!”

If there is anything I have learned about God, it’s that we can’t put Him in a box. As hard as we try, we can’t figure Him out. He’s always up to something. He’s always surprising us. He doesn’t do things based on human logic. Over and over again in the Bible, He blew people out of the water with the things He did and the types of people He used.

God is still the captain picking people to be on His team. He’s still looking. And He’s not looking for the the ones with the perfect skill set. He’s not looking for the qualified. As the saying goes, God doesn’t call the qualified. He qualifies the called.

God sees us so differently than we see ourselves. He takes the weak and makes them strong. He takes the least and makes them great. And He takes farmers and turns them into mighty warriors.