You will never be ready. You’ll never know enough. You’ll never think you know enough. You’ll never believe you’re adequate. You’ll never think you have the necessary skills or talents. You’ll never think you have what it – whatever “it” is – takes. You will never be ready.
None of that matters. It doesn’t matter how ready you feel. It doesn’t matter how much knowledge you acquire or have left to acquire. It doesn’t matter that you don’t feel up to the challenge. It doesn’t matter that you feel inadequate. It doesn’t matter that you doubt your talents and your skills. It doesn’t matter. None of it.
What matters is that you take the next step. You don’t know where it will lead, but you take it. You take it despite the apprehension and misgivings. You take it despite feeling that you’re worthless and unusable. You take it despite wondering if you, a misshapen lump of clay, can be turned into something useful, perhaps even something beautiful. You take the step even if you’re unsure your talents and skills are up to what you will have to ask them. You take it even though you don’t think you’ve prepared enough, and you worry that your lack of knowledge will be apparent to all. Again, none of that matters. You will never be ready. You will never know enough. You still have to take that step.
You take it because you’re called to do so. You take it because you have chosen to walk in obedience. You take it because you are open to possibility not because of how prepared, adequate, or knowledgeable you are. You will never be fully prepared, adequate, or all-knowing. Every step you take is a searching and a hoping that you are moving in the right direction. If the step is wrong, you correct your course. You realign your center on the potter’s wheel so that you can become something useful and maybe even beautiful. If the step is right, you continue forward. You take another step and another, not because you’re ready but because you’re open and willing to take it.
Image: Aaron H. (CC BY NC 2.0)