God invites us to join in God’s mission to the world. For some, that invitation is to vocational ministry. For most, it is an invitation to ministries for which they are not paid but are nonetheless vital to the fulfillment of God’s mission.

So what kind of people does God call to these places of service? One thing we know for sure: God requires neither past nor present perfection. Paul would offer himself as the first example of this. He lives with his own amazing story of transformation—from a life of persecuting the church to propagating the church.

Remember Moses, the glowing deliverer of God’s laws? Moses is not perfect. He kills a man in an act of ethnocentric passion. Yet God calls Moses to a place in God’s plan.

Surely someone reading this is thinking, God couldn’t call me. Not with my limitations and imperfections. That would be wrong. I know God calls unworthy people, for I am one. I am both skillfully inadequate and personally unworthy to join in God’s amazing plan for the world. Yet one of today’s verses reminds me that the calling God gave me is purely a gift of mercy: “Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart” (niv).

Someone suggested that beautiful flowers should be displayed in plain pots, so that the pots will not detract from the flowers’ splendor. Perhaps that is why God invites imperfect people like you and me to serve in God’s plan for the world.