Instruments For Christ

"In about 1930, I gave my first speech. I portrayed Uncle Sam in a pageant at Woodlawn School, with a long beard and a tailcoat. My mother was a nervous wreck after teaching me the speech and listening to me practice it until I knew it word perfect. My knees shook, my hands perspired, and I vowed to myself that I would never be a public speaker!" - Billy Graham (from 'Just As I Am')

This past week, I've been reading the 730 page autobiography of Billy Graham. The above quote is stated in chapter two, if I recall correctly, and as I read it, I couldn't help but smile. Billy Graham, probably the most well known public speaker of the 20th and 21st centuries, vowed at about 11 years old that he would never be a public speaker. His principal told his mother, after that speech, that he had a gift for it, but it was so far out of his comfort zone that he likely couldn't imagine willingly doing anything like it again. Little did he know what God had in mind for his life. 
I have often times found myself asking God the question, "why me, Lord?" 
Ever feel that way? 
I've found that usually the things God has called us to do with our lives, we're afraid to do, or they're way outside of our comfort zones.
And you wouldn't think that they would be, right? Shouldn't we be naturally able to do the things that God has called us to do/enjoy doing those things from the start?
Yet more often than not, when you see someone who appears to be fully confident in Christ, doing what He has called them to do with their lives... They tell you that they never would've imagined the life they live, or that they actually have to fight a lot of fear to do what they do.
Reading that even Billy Graham had to overcome fear to do what God called him to do really got me thinking.
I know the man was imperfect. I don't admire him because I believe he was, the fact that he had to overcome any fear at all proves that he was flawed just like you and me.
What I admire about the man, and what really inspires me, is that despite his flaws, fears, and failures; he chose to surrender himself daily as an instrument for Christ.
He was afraid to speak in public (at least for awhile), probably didn't ever think he was all that good at it. But he still asked God to use him, and went wherever God led, as well as did whatever God told him to, even if he was uncomfortable.
I don't know how many of you play any instruments, but let's dig deeper into this analogy.
A piano, guitar, flute, harp....... tuba?... I don't know, point is, any instrument, is powerless on its own. It's a slave to the musician's every command. It can be used to make beautiful music (an exception to the tuba) that connects with many people's spirits, but somebody has to live through it if you will. Somebody has to use the instrument to make that music. It can't do it alone.
In the same way, we are called to be instruments for Christ.
We are called to let Him live through us, and make a beautiful song out of our lives that we couldn't do alone.
The fear comes in because the enemy doesn't want us to become instruments for Christ. He wants to use us to make an ugly sound that negatively affects us as well as anyone who hears it. 
So he gives us fear. He comes into our lives, sees the gifts God has given us, and does everything he can to make sure we don't discover them for ourselves, lest we decide to use them for the kingdom of God.
Don't let him win.
God has a beautiful song that He's waiting to play through you, but it WILL require you jumping out of your comfort zone, and even taking some risks. 
Whatever it is you have "vowed" never to do out of fear...  
Leap.
Because the best things in life are outside of our comfort zones, but they can only be reached when we give ourselves to God to use as He will.