I like to be needed, but I LOVE to be wanted.
Being needed makes me feel used. Being wanted makes me feel loved.
When someone needs me, I feel all this pressure to be exactly how they need me to be. When someone wants me, I feel free to be exactly who I am.
So it’s a beautiful feeling to sit back and reflect on the fact that God doesn’t need me.
God didn’t have to create me. He didn’t have to love me. And he certainly didn’t have to ask ME to go to 11 countries and show his love to his people there.
But he wants me. He wants me so much that he sent his son, his only, beloved, PERFECT son, to take the punishment I deserved for the sin that separated me from him. He did that for me. Because he wants me to be able to be in his presence.
And he wants you too. He did that for you just like he did for me. He loves you that much too. Did you know that?
And he chose me.
He chose me to be his daughter, even though I declared to him when I was eight years old that I wanted nothing to do with him. I hated him, I was angry at him, and I pushed him away until I was thirteen.
He chose me over and over again. Even though I constantly chose to put other things above him, even though I constantly chose to use him as a safety net while putting my ultimate trust in people or grades or sports or my own plans for my life.
He chose me to be a witness for him. He chose me to join him in his work. I didn’t choose what he planned for me to do. I just chose to say yes to whatever he asks. I chose to follow him wherever he leads me.
He doesn’t need me. And that makes it all the more incredible that he wants me.
My senior year in college, on the nights that my RA was on duty, she’d sometimes ask me to come with her when it was time for her to go on her rounds through all the women’s dorms. She didn’t need me; all she had to do was walk up and down the halls cutting off the lights. But she wanted me, because she loved me and wanted to spend a little bit of time with me.
Knowing that God is asking me to come around the world with him and watch him at work feels like that, but multiplied about 805 times. He doesn’t need anything from me. It’s impossible for me to disappoint him. He just loves me.
He loves you too. He’s calling you to join him in some way. None of us is any less loved, and none of our callings are any less important. Don’t compare God’s plan for you with his plan for someone else; he doesn’t need those people any more than he needs you. Whatever he chose you for, just say yes. He’ll take it from there.
He wants us. He chose us. He LOVES us!
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit-fruit that will last-and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. ~John 15:16
