We might think that God only uses perfect people, but He often uses those least likely to succeed.
Have you ever met someone and thought, That person will go places! I remember thinking that about one of my fellow students in college. We were both music majors and sang in the same choir. But this woman also had talents in the theater and starred in many of the university’s drama productions. While everyone on the stage of one of those shows did an admirable job, this woman outshone them all. The other actors knew their lines and delivered them well, but she became her character.
After graduation, I heard she went to the famed Yale School of Drama. A few years later, our university alumni paper highlighted her career on Broadway. “I knew she would make it!” I said when I read the article. Since then, I’ve seen her in movies and television shows. My fellow classmate whom I thought “most likely to succeed” actually did!
The Bible tells a story about a Samaritan woman who probably would never have received the title “Most Likely to Succeed.” Just the opposite. A woman with multiple failed marriages, she couldn’t seem to keep a husband. And when Jesus met her at a well near her town of Sychar, she lived with a man who didn’t even give her the dignity of legal marriage.
But isn’t it just like Jesus to choose “the least likely to succeed”? He could have chosen to meet with kings or governors, high priests or scribes. Yet He chose a woman who had experienced prejudice and rejection. Someone who perhaps didn’t have a single friend. She came to the community well at noon, probably to avoid the judging eyes of her neighbors. Yet her solitary visit to the community well became the perfect time for Jesus to tell her the Good News about living water.
What do we do when life feels like a string of failures? We see from the life of the woman at the well that even when we have multiple strikes against us, God doesn’t shout, “You’re out!” Her story teaches us about success in God’s kingdom.
Success Does Not Depend On Our Gender, Race, Or Reputation.
The woman at the well had nothing to qualify her for success in her culture. As a female, she was considered a second-class citizen, one not worthy to learn about things of God. Her Samaritan race was considered inferior because of its mixed ancestry. And her reputation? Well, let’s just say her neighbors probably didn’t invite her to the neighborhood barbecues.
Yet Jesus timed His journey to Galilee to meet with the woman, to teach her about living water, and to tell her about worshiping in spirit and truth. He chose to reveal His true identity to someone most people overlooked. He picked her to tell other Samaritans about the Savior of the world. “Come and see,” she told the people of Sychar. We don’t need a degree in theology to share our faith. We can simply tell others about the difference the Messiah makes in our lives.
You might think your gender or race limits the influence you have. Or that your lack of a big platform means your reach will be small. You might believe your reputation or past will prevent others from listening to you. If so, remember that Jesus used a woman with all of these strikes against her to bring many people to faith. Jesus can use you too, right where you are.
Multiple Failures Do Not Disqualify Us From Success In God’s Kingdom.
The Samaritan woman had numerous failures, including the loss of five husbands. “The Jews held that a woman might be divorced twice or at the most three times. If the Samaritans had the same standard, this woman’s life had been exceedingly immoral.” Of course, we don’t know her backstory, but probably everyone in her community would have viewed her as a repeat offender. Did the woman see herself the same way? Men discarded her. Women turned away. Maybe she thought she had messed up too many times for God to forgive her.
Sometimes our culture views God as a sort of cosmic scale. If my good deeds outweigh the bad, people think, then I’ll go to heaven. Of course, this isn’t true. One tiny sin tips the scale to our eternal punishment as much as ten thousand sins. Only God’s grace can tip the scale in our favor. Jesus’ death and resurrection outweigh all of our sins and enable us to live with Him forever.
God’s Measure of Success
Although most of us believe the truth of God’s grace, we might not live it. We may think, If my church knew how many times I snapped at my kids this week, they wouldn’t let me in. Or, If my Bible study friends knew how many men I was with in college, they would ask me to leave. While it’s true we humans often act in harsh judgment of others, we see in the Samaritan woman’s story that Jesus doesn’t see multiple failures as a deal breaker. When we trust in His saving work on the cross, He wipes out millions of sins as easily as He erases one. And when He has wiped them away, He sees us as clean as new-fallen snow. He used the woman with five failed marriages to change a whole town. However many times you’ve messed up, He still calls you to have faith in Him and still uses you to influence your world.
In our culture, the wealthy, the privileged, and the supertalented succeed. Those who experience even a little success are more likely to get noticed. Once they’ve made it to the first rung of the ladder of achievement, they have a better chance of climbing to the top.
But in God’s kingdom, we see over and over again how Jesus picks the least likely. He welcomes those the world has shunned. He chooses to reveal Himself to people society ignores or has rejected. God’s love doesn’t depend on our perfection for we are measured by grace. The Lord uses people with multiple failures for staggering success in His kingdom.
This post is adapted from my new book, Measured by Grace: How God Defines Success. If you’ve ever felt like your life is a mess or that it’s too small to make any difference, read how God defines success!
This book studies eight “failures” in the Bible–people who either made a big mess of their lives or simply didn’t look like a success in the eyes of the world. By examining their lives you’ll discover that God redeems our failures and doesn’t measure us by wealth or fame. He measures us by His grace!
You can find out more about this eight-week Bible study book and download a FREE chapter here.