^"Don't be in any rush to become a teacher, my friends. Teaching is highly responsible work. Teachers are held to the strictest standards. And none of us is perfectly qualified. We get it wrong nearly every time we open our mouths. "
James 3:1-2, The Message

June 1988 ... the summer after my first year at Michigan State University (who I happen to be watching right now as I write this ... 'Bama is kicking their butt ... anyway ...) and I was working at our local Budweiser distributor.  Hope I didn't just offend any religious folks ... it was just a summer job, so take it easy.  Halfway through the summer I was promoted from sorting empty bottles to loading the delivery trucks.  Sorting the empties was a horrible, smelly, disgusting job.  Not to mention loading the trucks meant $1.00 more per hour, putting me up to $6.00 per hour.  That was good money back then.

You don't go through any sort of official training to learn how to load beer trucks.  There is no class, or manual.  I showed up for my first shift, excited to be away from the smelly empties.  Even more, as a loader I got to drive a forklift around the warehouse all night, which always looked cool.  So after I punched in, I went up to the shift foreman and asked him what to do.  I can't repeat in this blog about 80% of the words that came out of his mouth.  Not only was he that miserable to work for, I got stuck loading on the same side of the truck as him, so we were side by side for eight hours a night.

The first truck rolls in ... gets parked ... and I get 20 seconds to look at the 'load sheet'.  I don't know what I'm looking at or even what I'm looking for but I was too scared to ask "Jim" any more questions.  I figured it couldn't be that hard, so I tried to figure it out on my own.  I missed loading a few products on the truck.  From the way Jim reacted you'd think I just started World War III.  I messed up on the second truck as well.  And the third ... the fourth ...  We loaded 19 trucks that night.  I'm not sure if I got any of the loaded right the first time.  Driving home I cried.  I felt so stupid, so incompetent.  Jim felt the same about me.  I know that because he told me several times that night how stupid I was.  The next day wasn't much better.  The next few weeks were miserable.  I just couldn't seem to get the hang of system the other loaders had in place, but .......

You gotta love it when there's a 'but' don't you?

... but then everything changed when we moved to our new warehouse.  Everything was different.  The trucks were all parked inside, allowing us to load them in a different order.  The pallets of beer were organized much differently than in the old warehouse, so even the guys who had been loading for years didn't know where to find anything.  Finally, a level playing field.  Jim and I were still on the same side of the truck, still loading the same products we did at the old warehouse.  There was one difference though ... I was getting done with our truck before Jim.  Not by much at first ... eventually I was finishing ahead of everyone ... every night!  I continued with that job for two years, and became the best, most efficient loader in the warehouse.  At the old warehouse, I was unqualified for the job.  I had no experience, no training, no mentor ... nothing.  When we moved to the new warehouse, we all started at zero, and had to learn the new system together.  I was able to thrive under the new system.

Have you ever felt unqualified to do something?  To talk about your relationship with God with someone?  I know I have.  I still do.  It's easy to hide behind a keyboard and computer monitor and type a blog post but talking face to face with someone is totally different.  When I first started walking with the Lord, I know I messed up talking about Him and my relationship with Him often.  I got it wrong 'nearly every time I opened my mouth'.  Just like when I started loading beer trucks.  What I didn't know at the time was that God had given me a new mind, He moved me into a new warehouse.  The foreman of that warehouse was the Holy Spirit.  For 21 years now He's walked side by side with me, from one 'truck' to another, helping me to share His word, His love, His message.  I've probably messed up more often than not, but I've done my best to keep trying. 

I don't claim to be a teacher.  I certainly never wanted to be one ... never had the patience for it.  However I can relate to this verse, and the feeling of being unqualified.  Maybe you do too.  Allow the Holy Spirit to move you into a new warehouse.  Let Him help you.  He's more than qualified.  God bless you.