“My grace is sufficient for you…”

As I look forward to our upcoming Holy Yoga Workshop, I am both immensely blessed and overwhelmed. For those of you who may not realize it, I’ve been actively practicing yoga for only a few short months. Through the Holy Yoga Instructor Training courses, my body has been bent and squished and molded and toned. I know I can do the yoga. I know that I relish the quiet moments spent engaged in peaceful solitude with my Jesus. But to stand before my closest friends, beloved family, and complete strangers and welcome them into my solitude; to bring them alongside me and shepherd them on a journey through Holy Yoga? I can assure you that I’ve never felt so “small” in my 24 years.

As I find myself tense and cringe at the very thought of my impending failures as a yoga instructor, I am gently and consistently reminded that God does not call the qualified; he qualifies the called.

Noah got drunk.

Abraham was really old.

Sarah was impatient.

Isaac played favorites.

Rebekah played favorites, too.

Jacob was a cheater.

Moses was a murderer and had a speech impediment.

Moses’ sister Miriam was a gossip.

Gideon was insecure.

Samson was a womanizer.

David had an affair and conspired in murder.

Elijah was moody.

Elisha was bald.

Jonah ran from God.

Jeremiah was a whiner.

John the Baptist ate bugs.

Peter was impulsive.

Martha was a worrier.

Zaccheus was too short.

Thomas doubted the Lord.

Paul persecuted the Lord’s people.

Francis of Assisi was rejected by his family.

Martin Luther had a hot temper.

John Calvin was sickly.

John Wesley was short.

Billy Sunday had a hot temper.

And the best one of all…Lazarus was dead.

2 Corinthians 12:9 (NIV)

“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”

Today, I am overwhelmingly grateful for grace that is sufficient to cover all weaknesses. I am grateful for a God who brings strength from my weakness, and Who’s plan is bigger and better than I could ever imagine.