"(Un)qualified" is the best Christ-centered book that I have read in a long time. It is relevant, encouraging, theological, engaging and funny without trying too hard. I think I could be friends with Steven Furtick in real life, because I think we have a similar sense of humor. But maybe not, because he hates Pinterest. So there's that.
This book is relevant and necessary because every.single.one of us, as a follower of Jesus, is both simultaneously unqualified to do anything for Christ, while also being 100% qualified because of and in Him.
When I think about someone in Scripture who is stuck between who God wants him to be and who he is, I think of Paul with his famous "do-do" passage. (You know the one...I do not do what I want to do, but I do what I do not want to do..." That one.) But Steven Furtick takes it in a different direction and talks about Jacob. Jacob the heel grabber, the coniver, the trickster who spends most of his life hiding because he pretended to be his brother in order to be blessed. But being blessed while pretending to be someone else isn't really a blessing. Jacob was always grasping at his brother's blessings as the first born...and don't we grasp for things too? Furtick studies Jacob's life and especially his encounter with the angel of the Lord. It was a pivotal and identity-changing encounter in which he grasped onto God instead of his brother's heel, and he was given a new name - Israel, meaning Prince or ruler. (Now, in seminary I studied under Dr. Barry Beitzel, an Old Testament scholar who helped translate and edit portions of the New King James Bible, and he actually argues that Jacob being renamed Israel is a negative thing. In that case, there is a huge foundational problem with using Jacob as the primary example for this book's premise, but I think Furtick's interpretation has solid grounding.) Anyway, I walked away from this book feeling like I'd thought about that portion of Scripture in a different way, and I think Furtick offers a balanced perspective of how God can use us and work in us because of our quirks, our personalities, and yes, even our sins (though this is not an excuse to sin!) and how differently the work of God might look in individuals.
God calls Himself "The God of Jacob" even after giving him a new name. God associates Himself with Jacob the coniver, the deceiver, the heel-grabber. And he associates Himself with us, because we are FREED from the guilt and shame.
We give ourselves lots of "third words" that we think make us unqualified to do xyz:
I am ____________.
Fat. Overwhelmed. Impatient. Selfish. A bad mom. Introverted. Ashley.
And we think we need those words to be opposite of what they are, when really we just need different words. God's words.
I am ____________.
Known. Accepted. Loved. In progress. Growing. A daughter. Ashley.
It's His words that qualify me for His work. It is HIS words that give me value! We are all unqualified by earthly measures, but Christ has given us new names, new third words, and that is what qualifies us.
"There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in. " - Leonard Cohen
Loved this book. It's a keeper! I received a complimentary copy of the book from bloggingforbooks.org in exchange for writing an honest review, but this is one I'd spend money on for sure!
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