I can't snap my fingers to save my life!

Okay, an odd way to start a story, let me elaborate here for you. When I was in my teens, I was a Girl Scout, and one of the games that we'd sometimes use to kill time was a clapping game that was punctuated with finger snaps. We'd sit in a circle, and clap and snap to the rhythm of this rhyme....one person would start and say....

Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar?
(she'd then choose a name from the group and add it to the line)
Jenny Jones stole the cookie from the cookie jar!
(the person named would respond)
Who, me?
(then back and forth between the two)
Yes, you?
Couldn't be!
Then who?

The second person would throw another name into the rhyme, and the game would go on. But you had to be fast enough to pick a name and work it into the rhyme when your own name was called. Needless to say, I'm not always fast enough, y'know?

Funny, but the thought of this old game came back to me when I was listening to the sermon at church last week. Yeah, but for a good reason, really! Pastor J was talking about our calling from God, just as the disciples were each called, and the phrase "who, me?" popped up in my mind, just as it has so many other times before. And then, the response "yes, YOU!"

I've spent a lot of time making excuses for not doing things that I thought were too tough, or too important for someone like me to do, afraid I might mess things up. I'd hear a friend, a person at church, someone in the community, ask me if I'd do something that would make a difference, that would be important, and I'd make excuses for not doing it, thinking "who, me?" After all, what if I failed? What if I wasn't accepted? What if I caused even more problems? Excuses, excuses, excuses....my fears did the talking for me.

And yet, think of it. The people called by God in the Bible weren't what we'd call saints, or even all that competent sometimes. Young like Timothy, old like Abraham, adulterers like David, killers like Moses....and excuse makers as well! Remember Abraham's reaction to being told he was going to lead God's people out of Egypt? "Find someone else, please!"

Who, me?

I went to a one-day retreat on Saturday for our church's leadership. And maybe, just maybe, I can remember that I'm there because God has a job or two for me. And He already knows I can do it with His help. He wants to live in and through me, and empower me to do what He wants me to do. And I want to learn how to let Him. That's what I've been put here, at this time and place, for. In Him, I can do this.

Who, me?
Yes, you.
Couldn't be!
Then who?


Darcy