St. Nektary of Optina: God can make something great from us.

"Batiushka," [Elder Nektary] said to me quietly, but with extraordinary firmness and authority, "take this advice for your whole life: if your superiors or those senior to you suggest something to you, then no matter how difficult or lofty it may seem to you, don't refuse. For the sake of obedience, God will help!"
Then he turned to the window and, pointing to nature, said, "Look! What beauty: the sun, the sky, the stars, trees, flowers... And you know - there wasn't a thing before. Not... a... thing!" He repeated this slowly, extending his hand from left to right. "And God created such beauty out of nothing. So it is with man - when he sincerely comes to an awareness of the fact that he's nothing, the God begins to make something great out of him."
+St. Nektary (Tihonov) of Optina, as related by Metropolitan Benjamin (Fedchenkov) in Elder Nektary of Optina by I. M. Kontzevitch , chapter 3 The Sermon