Jeremiah’s first response to his calling sounds a lot like mine did: I am too young, too unprepared, too much of a nobody for this (Jeremiah 1:6). God’s answer was not comfort. It was correction — do not say that. Go where I send you.
I have carried that exchange with me through every invitation I have almost turned down. There is a version of humility that is actually just fear dressed nicely, and I have worn it more than once.
Readiness, I have come to believe, is not a feeling you arrive at before you begin. It is something God builds in you while you are already walking. If I had waited to feel ready to lead a Bible study, mentor a young mother, or speak in front of a room, I would still be waiting.
So now, when the fear shows up dressed as humility, I try to ask a different question. Not “am I ready,” but “is He asking.” Those are not the same question, and only one of them is mine to answer.