[A]nd perceiving them to be uneducated, ordinary men, the leaders, elders, and scribes were amazed. // Acts 4:13

My brother and sister were straight A-students, in the “enrichment program” during elementary school, and in accelerated honors classes in middle and high school. I was not. It was like we were running a marathon and they were effortlessly sprinting toward the finish while I breathlessly panted behind the pack. Math was a particular bane of my educational experience.

Fast forward several years, and there I was, in a fifth grade classroom, teaching math. I felt completely inadequate and unprepared. The wounds surrounding my history with math were very much exposed, and I doubted my ability to educate the little minds sitting before me.

It turns out, I was a decent math teacher. My difficulties in comprehending the subject helped me to be more compassionate and patient with my students as they struggled to grasp the concepts. I didn’t need to be perfect to be able to teach my students, many of whom ended up being better at math than I was. I just had to be willing to try!

Our Lord did not call the “straight A” students of His time to proclaim His message. Instead, He caused amazement among them by choosing “uneducated, ordinary men,” and He does the same today (see Acts 4:13).

Sister, He calls us to follow Him and share the good news of salvation with the world. As He called “Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons” (Mark 16:9), He calls us despite our wounds, inadequacies, and failings to proclaim, “what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20). He calls us not because we know about Him, but because we know Him.

Regardless of where your academic journey has taken you, or what kind of student you were, He simply asks for your desire to share Him with the world. It is not academic knowledge that gives us boldness in proclaiming the Christ, it is our love for Him and desire to make Him known in the world. When we offer that in simplicity, He says to us as He said to the Apostles, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15).

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