I have had multiple people seek me out this week for various reasons. Some needed advice on spiritual matters while others sought guidance in personal areas. A few others wanted my opinion and some simply needed a listening ear.

It’s always a privilege and great honor when someone seeks me out and invites me into their world. I understand them better and often know how to pray more specifically for their needs.

But this week, the conversations hit me differently. The topics these ladies brought to me needed wisdom. Knowledge. Maturity. They needed someone with experience and age. Many times I felt inadequate, and afterward I asked God why he kept sending people my way. I’m not that person, God. I’m not the older mature leader they are looking for.

In the middle of the week, I had a conversation with another staff member of our church, and he shared about learning how to play and teach guitar. “You only have to stay one lesson ahead in order to be a leader.”

Only one lesson ahead.

Whether I feel adequate or not doesn’t matter. Whether I think I’ve arrived or not isn’t the point. What matters is that I’m constantly growing and allowing God to make me more like him in every way possible.

It’s humbling to look around and see people watching how I live my life. It’s overwhelming to think that they feel like I’m the person who will give them the words and advice they need in hard moments of life. I don’t feel ready. But like the guitar teacher: I only have to stay one lesson ahead.

As long as I’m here on this earth I’ll never “arrive”. Only in heaven will I be in a place of no sin and eternal perfection. So, until then, I will keep trying to do the next right thing. Make the best God-based decision I can. And do everything in my power to allow him to shape me into the person he desires me to be.

Ready or not, God needs us. He needs our yes. Our willingness. Our obedience. And sometimes, we will be miles ahead of the ones who come to us for advice, while other times, we will be only one lesson ahead. But no matter the scenario, we must trust God with it all. Apart from him, we are nothing. With him, we can move entire mountains.