Overcoming a Sense of Inadequacy
Tucker Morrow—
I vividly remember the first recess at my new elementary school in third grade. I’d recently changed schools and felt like an outsider walking on the playground. I tried to jump into the games that other kids were playing, but I wasn’t having much luck. That’s when I noticed that a few of the other boys in class were surrounded by seemingly everyone. People laughed at their jokes, vied for their attention, and seemed to hang on to their every word. As I stood off to the side and watched, I inadvertently stepped into a trap that many have fallen victim to: “If I want people to like me, I’m going to have to become someone different.”
I know now this was a feeling of inadequacy, a belief that I lacked some quality or characteristic that others had. While I no longer spend my time worrying about what third graders think of me, that seed of inadequacy planted on the playground took root and became a significant obstacle toward the way I saw God, myself, and others, and ultimately it impacted my willingness to share my faith.
In one way, my sense of inadequacy was spot on. I say this because what I have discovered is that the most I can offer on my very best day falls woefully short of the perfect standard that God requires. I am sinful, deceitful, selfish, and a laundry list of other things. I have no right, by my own merits, to stand in front of anyone and tell them the way they should live their life or what they should believe.
But in another, far more important sense, my feelings of inadequacy were way off the mark. I say that because as a believer in what God has accomplished through the death, and resurrection of His son Jesus, I am a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). That means that despite my feelings, God has declared me adequate, both as a member of His family forever and as a participant in His ministry to the world today.
Everyone on earth, regardless of our beliefs, is trying to justify their existence. This looks different for everyone. We try to justify our existence through our jobs, our skills, our wealth, or our relationships. But none of those things fully deliver. This is why people whose sense of adequacy is rooted in making money seem to never have enough, and why athletes who win a championship often feel compelled to chase after another. A sense of adequacy or justification built on these things doesn’t last; it’s insufficient and incomplete. If we want to be adequate in any lasting sense, we can only find that in Jesus Christ.
Do you feel inadequate to share Jesus because you fall short day in and day out? That’s not all bad. It is the awareness of your inadequacy apart from God that will allow you to effectively share with others the adequacy of Christ. It’s what moves you (and me) to compassionately share the gospel as a friend and co-sinner, rather than lording my “upright life” over those I hope will come to faith.
At the same time, the inadequacy I bring to the table is not the end of the story. And it’s not the end of your story either. If you have trusted in Christ as your Savior, He has made you His child and has already qualified you to be His ambassador to a hurting world (2 Corinthians 5:20). So, if you are feeling inadequate to share the gospel—as I often do, don’t give into those feelings. He has given you what it takes to tell others what He has done in your life, and what He can do in theirs.
Tucker Morrow is married to his wife, Page, of 14 years. They have 3 children together: Asher, Ezra, and Noa, aged 10, 8, and 6. He majored in business marketing at Trinity University in San Antonio, TX and has been the Area Director for Search in Bell County for the past year.
