Successful people will tell you that the number one factor in their success is that believe in themselves. They believe that they can accomplish whatever they set their minds and hearts on accomplishing. They have confidence in themselves. Because they believe in themselves and have confidence in themselves, they don’t quit or give up until they have succeeded. It also doesn’t hurt that they often have others behind them that believe in them . . . parents, spouses, friends, mentors.
Self-belief and confidence go a long way.
It makes a difference.
Our scripture reading this morning is about the call of Jeremiah to be a prophet for God. It is not what I call a real positive interview or start to God’s call. Jeremiah is not too keen on the idea of being a prophet for God. Prophets are not appreciated, they are not liked, and sometimes they have real short lifespans. For this reason, Jeremiah makes a bunch of excuses as to why he can’t be a prophet for God . . . “I do not know how to speak; I am too young.” Add to that the fact that Jeremiah is probably scared to death of the whole proposition.
Who can blame him? The times that Jeremiah is living and being called to serve as God’s prophet are not good times for the children of God. It is a time in which the people have basically ignored God’s desires and the way that God wanted to treat and act towards each other. It is a time when they are uppity towards the Babylonians stoking a fire that would eventually burn them . . . burn them severely. In fact, the two things intermingle and Babylon invades. The walls of Jerusalem are broken down, many people are killed, the king’s palace is leveled, and the temple is destroyed. It was an invasion designed to destroy the city physically, psychologically, and spiritually, the people, domestic, social, and economic life. The result is that the people questioned their relationship with God.
It was to this that Jeremiah was chosen to represent and speak for God . . . to speak both to the people and those in power. It was a hostile situation filled with armed Babylonians and terrified people. Not the most hospitable and listening group. To these people Jeremiah is told to speak the words of God and to “. . . uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.”
Jeremiah did not want the job, nor did he believe that he could do the job. After all, he was too young and didn’t know how to speak. But God didn’t care . . . God believed in Jeremiah. What else did Jeremiah need!
God told Jeremiah: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations. Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you.” Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched his mouth and said to Jeremiah. “I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.”
God is telling Jeremiah that he can do it. He can do it because God believes in him. If he can believe in the God that believes in him . . . well, he can do it. God is with him.
Well, Jeremiah reluctantly accepts the call. I am not certain that we can say that he whole-heartedly embraced it as we can see through the forty years he served as God’s prophet he fretted a lot about it all. He was constantly wondering whether he was where God wanted him . . . whether he was doing what God wanted him to do. Sure, there were moments of success, but there were moments of utter disappointment. Yet through it all . . . God was with Jeremiah. Always with him.
There was always that little bit of lingering doubt within Jeremiah. In the end he accomplished what God had asked him to do. He spoke the word of God to the people. He stood by the people. He guided the people. But it wasn’t easy . . . there were good and bad days . . . easy and difficult days . . . days when he felt utterly defeated. Through it all he trudged despite his lingering doubts . . . he trudged onward because he believed.
Don’t we all?
Aren’t we all like Jeremiah?
Don’t we want to see ourselves as confident people called by God to do God’s will? And yet, don’t we all wonder . . . wonder whether or not God has called the right person? Don’t we all carry some of that lingering doubt about ourselves and God within us?
Sure, we do! We all do.
Consider Mother Teresa . . . one of the saintliest people in our lifetimes. She was recognized across the world as a holy person . . . a Christ-like person . . . for the work she did among the poor and homeless around the world. The Roman Catholic Church thought so, and they canonized her as a saint nine years after her death. She is a universal and beloved figure of what it looks to be like Jesus. And yet, she doubted. She doubted her faith . . . she doubted her call . . . she doubted her relationship with God.
In a letter written to a friend she wrote: “Jesus has a very special love for you. [But] as for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great, that I look and do not see–Listen and do not hear–the tongue moves [in prayer] but does not speak … I want you to pray for me–that I let Him have [a] free hand.”
In all honesty we are no different than the prophet Jeremiah . . . no different than Mother Teresa. We join them in our admission that we too have our doubts . . . moments when it is difficult to believe in ourselves, to believe in God’s call upon our lives, and to believe in our relationship with God.
But we don’t quit. We continue to do move onward with our lives doing what we can do. We do our work. We do the little things that need to be done daily. Little things that don’t look like much, yet they bring peace to others and us. We keep plugging away . . . filling our lives with these little acts of kindness, grace, and love. Sort of like wildflowers which seem to have no scent, till you get a field full of them. Even in doubt you do what you know . . . repeatedly until eventually everyone is doing it. Jeremiah’s ministry as a prophet was forty years.
Why?
Because we believe in God and God believes in us. We—you and I—can do it. We can do it even when that lingering doubt won’t quit popping up. We can do it because God believes in us and will not abandon us . . . in the good and bad, easy and difficult, victories and defeats, and moments of uncertainty and doubt. God believes in us, and we believe in God. If God trust us that much, we should trust ourselves.
It has been said that it takes a lot of faith in the future to plant an acorn. Few people who plant acorns will ever see the mature oak that it produces. Much of what we do as a follower of Jesus does not have immediate, short-range results. This is something that teachers are aware of. They pour their lives into children who then grow up and will likely not even remember their names. But they learn from them and incorporate that into who they become as adults. What the teacher does is invest in a future they will never see, and for which they will never get any credit. They just do it even when they doubt what they are doing . . . when they doubt themselves . . . they keep on plugging away.
I do not know where any of you are in your faith journeys, but I do know that we all have those moments of doubt. Mother Teresa did. Jeremiah did. Even Jesus did in the garden on the night before he was crucified. Yet they all kept trying. God believed in them, and God believes in us. What else do we need? How can we fail? God is with us. That is all we need. Amen.
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