Lady REDEEMED

Dear Readers,

Let’s get real tonight, as we often should, and talk about something that many of us deal with…imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome, as recognized by psychological literature, can be defined as:

“self-doubt of intellect, skills, or accomplishments among high-achieving individuals. These individuals cannot internalize their success and subsequently experience pervasive feelings of self-doubt, anxiety, depression, and/or apprehension of being exposed as a fraud in their work, despite verifiable and objective evidence of their successfulness” (Heucker, 2023).

It’s funny that this feeling comes for people who have attained high achievement. My husband and I can both tell you about this, and as I search through the Bible I can find a number of great pillars of the faith who surely felt the same; a few names that come to mind include Moses, who literally tried to argue God out of calling him to do the task designed for him to do, Gideon, who God found hiding from the enemy and raised up to lead an army of 300 into battle against the dreaded enemies, the Apostle Peter, etc. None of these people felt qualified, and often, neither do we.

I could jump on here and tell you how wonderful you are, or we could have a one on one discussion about how the evidence supports your competence, but that isn’t really what any of us need. That wasn’t the point of who God chose…it never was. Scripture tells us in fact, that the people God calls to do great things are not qualified! “and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are” (1 Corinthians 1:28). Other versions use adjectives such as foolish, lowly, and weak to describe the people that God uses. Scripture is replete with these examples, which fly starkly in the face of Darwinian theology. You are where you belong, and God put you there. You were likely not put there to gain the favor of the wicked, garner power for yourself, develop an impressive image, or prove to be the smartest person in the room. You were put there to bring the hope of Jesus to a lost and dying world by being good at your skill, your academics, your job, whatever it is… which was given to you by the One who placed you where you are at this exact moment. Your purpose is Heaven ordained and so your mind must be kingdom oriented. If you are suffering with imposter syndrome, let me put it to you straight…your eyes are probably on the wrong person (HINT: Your eyes shouldn’t be on you). Your confidence has to come from someone else, and its not the people around you either furthering or diminishing your confidence. God has placed the anointing on you, and no one, including yourself, can take that away. He knew your weaknesses before you did, and He was not intimidated by them, because they are no match for His divine power, by which He intends to see the completion of the good work He began in you.

Finally, I will share what one of my PhD classmates said to me my first semester in my doctoral program, I will paraphrase in quotes: “You say you want to do all of these things for the glory of the Lord, the sake of the gospel, and the good of those around you. That doesn’t sound like an imposter to me…it sounds like someone pursuing a God given desire”. This proved very helpful to me, and still does. Friends, our plans are many, and even our most ambitious and altruistic dreams do not always align with what He wants to do with us, but as we lean into Him and trust in Him, and not ourselves…as we trust in His power and not our own abilities…we can walk in the confidence that Gideon, and Moses, and the other great heroes gained. No one truly feels ready for what God has called them too. David didn’t look at His calling and say “Yeah finally someone noticed I was meant to be king of Israel”. But part of trusting Jesus means trusting Him to help us do what we can’t do on our own, and letting Him lead us into the plans that He has for us without saying to ourselves “how did I get here, and what if I screw this up?” God is not intimidated by your weakness. You are not an imposter because you did not call yourself, but rather you were called by the One who created you and knows you far better than yourself, and whose ways will forever by higher than your own.

Trust in the Savior who called you, not yourself. Rely on His grace to cover your weakness, and imposter syndrome, though normal, will begin to lose it’s grip on you, as you fall into arms that will always be able to bear you, and all the burdens that you carry.

With very great love,

~Lady Redeemed

References: Huecker, M. R. (2023, July 31). Imposter phenomenon. StatPearls [Internet]. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK585058/#:~:text=Introduction,accomplishments%20among%20high%2Dachieving%20individuals.