Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior, but he was the son of a prostitute. Judges 11:1
When I was a kid, I imagined, hoped, and prayed that God would make me an amazing athlete. I promised God that if he did so, I’d give him all the credit so that everyone watching would want to follow him. Though it seemed like a win for everyone involved, God didn’t take me up on my offer and I remained a dreadfully average athlete. Still, I thought it was a good idea – for God to miraculously empower those who believed in him, making them profoundly successful. If I were God, I’d make my followers rich and attractive so that everyone would want to follow me.
Much later in life, after the downfall of my addiction, I saw myself as the exact opposite of someone God would want to use. I was a loser who’d lost my job and gone to treatment. How could God use that kind of person? What could I possibly offer him? That of course, was when I began to be useful to God. While I was concerned with self-promotion, and while I saw myself as successful, I wasn’t humble enough to truly rely on God. It was only in losing everything that I became willing to follow his plan instead of my own. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God (1 Corinthians 1:28).
Throughout the Bible, God used those whom the world perceived to be losers. Today’s passage is one such story. In it, we read of Jephthah, whose mother was a prostitute. As the son of a prostitute, his father’s other children despised him and drove him away from home. In the end though, God didn’t choose someone with a respectable pedigree. Rather, he chose Jephthah, the outcast son of a prostitute to be Israel’s next leader. God didn’t use those whom the world saw as successful. He used the loser.
When we were captains on the playground, we picked the best to be on our team. God sees things much differently and does the exact opposite. We imagine that to be used by God, we must first have a lot to offer him. God though, simply wants those who will depend on him, being obedient to his will.
When I saw myself as successful, I was too self-dependent to rely on God. It was only in having nothing that could begin to follow him. It was only in being utterly reliant on God that I became useful to him. I’ll never be a professional athlete, but thankfully, I don’t have to be. All I have to be, is willing to follow God’s plan instead of my own.