• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Wednesday in the Word

what the Bible means and how we know

  • Home
  • Bible Studies
    • New Testament Bible Studies
    • Old Testament Bible Studies
    • Topical Bible Studies
    • What is the Gospel?
  • Study Help
    • Resource Library
    • Resources by Book of the Bible
    • Bible Study 101: Learn to Study the Bible
    • Bible Study 201: Learn to teach the Bible
  • Articles
    • Theology
    • Faith & Life
    • Family
    • Women’s Ministry Resources
    • Most Popular
  • What is WitW?
    • Meet Krisan
    • What We Believe
    • Looking Back
  • Contact

service

Flying through impostor syndrome

September 24, 2015 by Krisan Marotta

ImpostorSyndrome-780

Three “random” events this week converged into one life lesson.

1) I listened to my pastor’s last sermon.

We met when I was a college freshman and he was an intern at our church.  Now he’s retiring after 43 years as its pastor.  I don’t think I was present for his first ever sermon, but I heard some of his earliest sermons while I was in college.  Though I’ve seen him in person only a handful of times since I graduated, I have followed all his sermons through the progress of technology: print, cassette tapes, CDs and finally Mp3s.

And I just heard the last one.  I feel like a bird who was just kicked out of the nest with no clue how to find the next meal.

2) My current pastor listened to me teach — in person.  Talk about impostor syndrome!  While he has been nothing but encouraging and supportive, seeing his face in the back row inspired a crushing wave of self-doubt.  The nagging trash-talk voice in my head ran wild: “You just lost one of your mentors.  Who am you to try to teach anybody anything?!  What were you  thinking?….”

3) I listened to a song by my favorite singer/songwriter Reggie Coates called “I Can Fly“, which is a glorious anthem to the confidence we have in Christ.

The song reminded me what I know to be true:  God uses impostors like me.

At times, we all think, “God couldn’t possibly use me.”  And we always have a good reason: I’m too old/young.  Or too extroverted/introverted.  Or too talkative/quiet.  Or too confident/insecure.  Or I don’t have the right education/background/pedigree/social graces/conversion story, etc..

And we’re right.  Left to ourselves apart from the grace of God, all of us are flawed, selfish and too “something”.

But God delights in taking sinful, selfish wretches like me, washing us clean in the blood of Christ and setting us on the path to glory.   As if mercy, grace and forgiveness weren’t enough, He also gives us a role to play in furthering His kingdom.

If you are a believer, the question is not whether God will use you, it is how and where God will use you.

All we have to do is humbly trust and obey. Silence the inner voice of self-doubt and “follow the pattern of sound words.”

For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.  Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher,  which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me.  Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.  – 2 Timothy 1:6-13 (emphasis mine)

By God’s grace, we can fly.

Learn more

 

Photo used here under Flickr Creative Commons.

Filed Under: Faith & Life, Topics Tagged With: doubt, impostor, service

7 Habits of Spectacularly Unsuccessful Leaders

March 18, 2014 by Krisan Marotta

7 Habits of Unsuccessful Leaders | WednesdayintheWord.com

I found the article “Seven Habits of Spectacularly Unsuccessful Executives” on Forbes.com eerily familiar.  In the article, Sydney Finkelstein shares his research on how fortune 500 companies disintegrate into bankruptcy because their CEOs shared 7 bad habits.  

The “Seven Habits of Spectacularly Unsuccessful Executives” are  (see the full article for details):

Habit # 1: They see themselves and their companies as dominating their environment. As far as they’re concerned, everyone else in the company is there to execute their personal vision for the company.
Warning Sign for #1: A lack of respect
Habit #2: They identify so completely with the company that there is no clear boundary between their personal interests and their corporation’s interests. Instead of treating companies as enterprises that they needed to nurture, failed leaders treated them as extensions of themselves. And with that, a “private empire” mentality took hold.
Warning Sign for #2: A question of character
Habit #3: They think they have all the answers. Leaders who are invariably crisp and decisive tend to settle issues so quickly they have no opportunity to grasp the ramifications. Worse, because these leaders need to feel they have all the answers, they aren’t open to learning new ones.
Warning Sign for #3: A leader without followers
Habit #4: They ruthlessly eliminate anyone who isn’t completely behind them. CEOs who think their job is to instill belief in their vision also think that it is their job to get everyone to buy into it. Anyone who doesn’t rally to the cause is undermining the vision. Hesitant managers have a choice: Get with the plan or leave.
Warning Sign for #4: Executive departures
Habit #5: They are consummate spokespersons, obsessed with the company image. Instead of actually accomplishing things, they often settle for the appearance of accomplishing things.
Warning Sign of #5: Blatant attention-seeking
Habit #6: They underestimate obstacles. When CEOs become so enamored of their vision, they often overlook or underestimate the difficulty of actually getting there. And when it turns out that the obstacles they casually waved aside are more troublesome than they anticipated, these CEO have a habit of plunging full-steam into the abyss.
Warning Sign of #6: Excessive hype
Habit #7: They stubbornly rely on what worked for them in the past. They insist on providing a product to a market that no longer exists, or they fail to consider innovations in areas other than those that made the company successful in the past.
Warning Sign of #7: Constantly referring to what worked in the past

While I’ve run into these “habits” throughout my business career, unfortunately I’ve also seen them on display in the church. It’s easy to become so passionate about your piece of God’s kingdom that you turn it into your own personal fiefdom, forgetting who we serve.

But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” – Matthew 20:25-28

More: Servant Leadership in Practice

Resources for Ministry Leaders

Filed Under: Leadership, Ministry Tagged With: leadership, philosophy of ministry, service, women's ministry

Primary Sidebar

Footer

Find the podcast on:


  • Facebook

  • Instagram

  • Google Play

  • iTunes Podcasts

  • Apple Music

  • Pinterest

  • SoundCloud

  • Spotify

  • Stitcher

  • TuneIn

  • iHeart

  • Email

  • RSS Feed

Wednesday in the Word is the podcast about what the Bible means and how we know.

Contact us

Privacy Policy

Legal Disclaimers

Copyright © 2023 · Krisan Marotta, WednesdayintheWord · Log in