In the Right Hands
I wrote the first draft of this on a yellow legal pad and with a wood pencil. But, I’m not huge fan of wooden pencils. I find them cumbersome. You have to constantly sharpen them, you can’t carry them in your pocket (unless you want to get stabbed), graphite dust gets everywhere, the list goes on.
I’ve always gone in the direction of mechanical pencils, but at the encouragement of a friend, I decided to stop being so elitist and work with some old school tools.
Pencils are a simple thing, yet they are powerful. Manuscripts, notes, novels, symphonies, sketches, and documents that changed the world have been scribbled out in pencils.
In war times, every soldier carried pencils and pocket notebooks, jotting down orders, sketching out maps, reminders, and last letters home.
Pencils are by no means perfect, yet in the right hands, they can help accomplish wonders.
Cheap pens are the same way. The standard Bic Cristal isn’t a high quality writing instrument, but yet since it’s inception in 1950, it’s sold over 100 BILLION pens. Obviously they are useful tools.
I’ve always leaned toward the Pilot G2 .38 pens (because I write small), but on a whim I starting playing with the cheap Bics, and they aren’t perfect, but they get the job done when you need them to. The ink may skip at times and it may not be as dark as you like, but it still puts words on the page.
I feel like we as human beings could be considered cheap instruments in God’s hands. He doesn’t need us to accomplish His plan, and if we are being brutally honest, in many ways we are a detriment to His plans (as if we could actually impede Him).
However, “instrument” isn’t the right word, because God doesn’t view us as a means to an end.
Though we are imperfect, God invites us into His plan and lets us be His hands and His feet on his earth. Think about that for a moment: an all-powerful, eternal, and omniscient God invites screwed up and mortal rebellious children to be His representatives here.
If you were thinking about this as a business move, it would be like a CEO sending his incompetent mail boy to speak for him at meetings. But God does this all the same, and why? Because He loves us.
God doesn’t look at us as tools for Him to use, but as His children and fellow heirs in His kingdom, and He invites us into His story because He wants us to be a part of something bigger than we are. He wants to work with us, and this makes me overwhelmed when I think about it.
I’m a screwed up mess of a human being who fails more than I succeed, or at least it feels that way. God wants me involved because He loves me despite my imperfections, and that fills me with a sense of joy and gratitude.
Who cares if I’m not always perfect, because thankfully, my God is.
This article appeared originally on jarrodterry.com.
