Why it’s Ok to be Inadequate - Soul Talk

Hand by Jeff Kubina

I listen to stories. Lots of them. Some of them are good, some not so good.
The story tellers tell me tales of all sorts of things. The journeys they have been on, the experiences had, people they have encountered, memories made.
Some of the journeys they share have left them like wounded soldiers returning shell shocked from the front line. They have Post Traumatic Stress Disorders, Dissociative Identity Disorders where they have created other personalities to just cope with life, Psychotic disorders, Depression, Anxiety etc.
They have formed various adequate ways of coping to get through life. Some would appear to the outside world as everything is perfect and lovely, but when with me they are able to drop the stage curtain to expose backstage what is really going on.
They feel safe.
Song lyrics of John Lennon float through my brain.

People say I'm crazy doing what I'm doing
Well they give me all kinds of warnings to save me from ruin
When I say that I'm o.k. well they look at me kind of strange

The most significant learning that I have encountered in my journeying with others is to embrace inadequacy.

Now that just goes completely against human logic. We told that we need to gain some sort of adequacy. That we are capable, that I can do this, I am sufficient, I have the skills and knowledge to make a difference.
Yes, knowledge etc. all have their place, but it they become the crucial thing you rely on, then you won’t get far in listening to the Soul, to the story.
I am inadequate to embrace the story, but I know some one who is.
In my relationship with God I find some level of adequacy to quietly sit and listen to the stories of others.
People want supernatural change in their lives, but they won’t find it through natural man made methods.

Supernatural change requires supernatural resources. 

Something needs to happen way beyond my competency and adequacy.
After listening to some one and hearing a microscopic level of supernatural change I often just scratch my head and ask myself ‘How did that happen’?
My inadequacy is an invitation for Spirit (Holy) to come and move.
I don't want to get in the way of what Daddy (The Father), Jesus and Spirit might be up to. I don't want to step on their toes. More so, I just want to join in the dance with them.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9

What ‘thoughts’ would God be thinking about the story being related to you? How does God consider what is being said? Am I listening to God or to my thoughts and adequacies? What are the ‘ways’ of God for this person and for myself?

Competent people do a good job—dentists, plumbers, schoolteachers, and technicians—but it is inadequate people, people who know that they are inadequate, that become effectively usable by God, by the Spirit of God in the work of Soul Care. Larry Crabb

Want to see deep change in others lives?
Embrace inadequacy. Scary but good!
What is your natural reaction to a sense of inadequacy? Comment below.
Barry Pearman
Image by Jeff Kubina
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