I lose my cool sometimes. I ugly cry and get upset and say things I don’t mean.

It happened just the other day. I was stuck in traffic so I decided to take a route that I thought would be a shortcut. As it turned out, it was the opposite of a shortcut, and I found myself in a line of about thirty cars waiting at a traffic light. And I kid you not, this was the shortest green light I had ever seen in my life—only two or three cars were able to get through it before it turned red again. It felt like a complete nightmare.

I let my emotions get the best of me, and I had a highly visible mental breakdown. Rocking back and forth, yelling, pounding the steering wheel. You know, all the good stuff.

I looked over to the car next to me because I had that feeling we all get when someone is looking our way. What I saw both made me more upset and sobered me up at the same time: the lady in the driver’s seat in the car to my right was staring me down and laughing. She was straight-up laughing at me.

I pulled up as much I could without hitting the car in front of me to hide myself from her view, although I knew she had already received her comic relief for the day. I called my boyfriend (poor guy) and explained my situation. When I got to the part about the show I unknowingly put on for my one-woman audience, he asked me, “Well, was it a good one?” I wanted to be mad at him, but I knew exactly what he was getting at. I deserved to be laughed at -- at least a little bit.

I spent the rest of my drive thinking about what had just happened, and I realized that God had me take that “shortcut” just so the laughing lady could help me learn a couple of lessons.

1. I think the laughing lady represents what He looks like when He looks at us in our most pathetic moments (e.g. throwing a temper tantrum over a traffic light). It’s not that He is laughing at us as if we are dumb beyond belief—it’s that He is laughing because He knows that what we are getting worked up about is severely insignificant.

2. I also feel like God put me in that situation because He knew I was planning on writing about how He uses imperfect people to carry out His Will. He wanted to show me that even though I do mess up, that doesn’t mean I’m not fit for ministry. I think that’s something that we all need to remember.

Do I need to get better at keeping my emotions in check? Absolutely, and it’s definitely something I have been working on. Should the fact that I’m not perfect keep me from ministry? Absolutely not.

My theory is that the areas that we struggle with the most are the areas that we should open up about the most. I don’t know about you, but when I read posts from my favorite blogger about her meltdowns and how much she has to rely on her husband to bring her back to reality every once in a while, it helps me to know that I am not alone. It also inspires me to see how she uses her weaknesses to demonstrate beautifully exactly how God can use imperfect people to encourage others.

So the next time you feel God calling you to use your talents and take a step outside of your comfort zone, don’t count yourself out because you feel too “unworthy.” The fact of the matter is that we are all unworthy. Unworthy of His love, His mercy, His grace, His everything. Not a single one of us deserves Heaven, but Jesus opened the gates for us anyway. And none of us is worthy to stand up in front of people and preach about the things we struggle with time and time again, but God gives us the strength to do it anyway. If only the people who were faultless decided to get involved in ministry, there wouldn't be a single person doing anything.

Yes, we constantly need to strive toward cleaning up our acts and becoming better examples for others. However, our imperfection should never stop us from becoming who God wants us to be. Stop counting yourself out, and join the rest of God’s imperfect children who have taken the leap of faith. God will be there to catch you when you fall.