From Mario and Link to Master Chief and Samus, all of these gaming protagonists have one thing in common… they started moving forward in their journey when we pressed start. I know that sounds simple and maybe a little bit obvious, but consider the alternative… what if they decided not to play the game? What if they felt so insecure about their abilities to defeat the Covenant, save Hyrule from Ganon’s evil plots, or rescue the princess from the correct castle that they simply never tried? What if Samus was overly concerned that her power suit was too damaged for her to be useful, so she just sat this mission out? What if Link convinced himself that he was the wrong guy to save the world and returned to his simple life in the village? What if Master Chief stepped out of that cryotube, took one look around and said, “Nope, I’m out” once he realized the impossibility of the challenge that was in front of him? What if Mario reminded himself that he was just a simple plumber and woefully unqualified for any of this, and decided to just sit there until time ran out? Well, I suppose there would be a lot of worlds that never get saved… fortunately, the existential challenges facing gaming’s greatest heroes and heroines rarely come into play in these fictional settings. No matter how inconsequential, unprepared, or unworthy they may feel, they march forward anyways… because whether they feel like it or not, they were designed for this.

In our real-world pursuit of the Lord’s plan for our lives, our feelings of insignificance or unworthiness are some of the most dangerous battles that we face, as they threaten to stop our journeys before they even start. Our primary villains in life aren’t named Bowser or Ganon… they go by names like “unqualified, “imposter syndrome” and “unworthy”. And their goal? To convince us that our destiny is out of reach because of the poor choices we’ve made, the lack of skills we possess, or the massive size of the obstacles that we face. But don’t take my word for it, let’s just ask Moses… he knows a little something about the subject.

Exodus 3:7-11 And the Lord said: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”

Let’s start with some backstory… Moses had previously left Egypt under some less than stellar circumstance… fleeing a murder charge and an execution sentence (Exodus 2:11-15). And now Moses given one of the most intimidating destinies imaginable… to return to the very scene of the crime and liberate the entire nation of Israel. And the very first thought that comes to his mind is, “Who am I to do this? I’m not qualified… I already tried my hand as a vigilante liberator and it went VERY poorly”. And his resistance to the Lord’s plan didn’t stop there…

Exodus 4:1-5 Then Moses answered and said, “But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you.’ ” So the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A rod.” And He said, “Cast it on the ground.” So he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail” (and he reached out his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand), “that they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”

Moses was DEEP in his own head about how under-qualified he was for this task and was already assuming mission failure, and the Lord asked him a simple question… “What is in your hand?” And as both a demonstration of His power as well as a reminder that the Lord can use even the most simple and unassuming items to serve an incredible purpose, He made this humble walking stick into an indicator of His divine approval. But Moses wasn’t done disqualifying himself yet…

Exodus 4:10-13 Then Moses said to the Lord, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” So the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the Lord? Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say.” But he said, “O my Lord, please send by the hand of whomever else You may send.”

Moses was convinced that the Lord had chosen the wrong person for the job… he knew that he was as unworthy, unqualified, and incapable as anyone could have possibly been. But the Lord chose Moses for purposes beyond his limited vision and understanding, knowing he was the perfect vessel for this specific challenge. Moses clearly grappled with feelings of inadequacy, insecurity, and a fear of failure, as many of us do when staring at the enormity of the mission in front of us. But what the Lord said to Moses then is the same thing He tells those He has called now… take what is already in our hands, trust in His abilities over our limited capabilities and His grace over our past mistakes, and most importantly GO (Hebrews 11:27).

Every great gaming protagonist had to launch into that first level feeling like they were not enough… Mario began as the smallest and least powerful version of himself, Link and Samus didn’t even possess most of their iconic capabilities or weapons yet, and Master Chief was massively outnumbered and outgunned. But they took that first, second, and third step anyways because their galaxy wasn’t going to save itself. And similarly, we are all given different talents in life, and some are more impressive looking on the outside than others (1 Corinthians 12:4-11). But when Christ shared the parable of the talents in Matthew 25, he didn’t emphasize who received the most… all that mattered is the difference between those that used what they had been given vs. the one who chose to hide the talent they received into the ground and not do anything with it at all.

Matthew 25:14-18 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey. Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money.

Here is the question I say to myself as much as anyone else… will we do what the Lord has called us to do even if the “talents” that He put in our hand seem as useless and unimportant as a common walking stick? Will we step out in faith even if we feel that our past failures disqualify us from serving Him? Will we take that first, second, and third step even as the voice in our heads calls us an unworthy imposter? Will we sing the words He has given us even if our voices aren’t “concert-quality”, paint even if our work will never be hung in a museum, write knowing that our work won’t show up on the New York Times best-seller list or even on a local library shelf, speak even if someone else is doing it “better”, and share what He has placed in our hearts even if only three people are watching? Will we invest our “talents” or will we hide them? The Father didn’t ask for or expect our perfection… He asked us to trust Him, follow Him, and obey Him, knowing whatever He gave us will be enough and anything else that we require will be provided along the way when we need it.

We aren’t too old, too young, too flawed, too broken, too weak, too small, or too insignificant… we are exactly what He knew we would need to be to do what He called us to do. Let’s avoid the temptation to hide our talents because of our perceptions of insignificance or our feelings of being inadequate… that indicates we are planning to lean on our strength instead of His (Proverbs 3:5-6). Instead, let’s run forward with the confidence of a Mario who knows that this battle is not actually his… the controller is in the hands of the Designer of the entire game, and all we need to do is trust and obey.

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