Reed’s Reads of Wisdom Wednesdays™: Sometimes You Have to Learn While Everybody Is Watching
Most of us would love to become great at something before anybody sees us doing it. We want to practice privately, make our mistakes where nobody is watching, correct every weakness, build our confidence and then step forward once we finally feel ready.
Life does not always give us that luxury. Sometimes you receive the promotion before you feel like a leader. Sometimes you become a parent while still wondering whether you are ready to raise another human being. Sometimes the opportunity you prayed for arrives while you are still developing the skills required to handle it. And sometimes God develops you in the very place where everybody can see that development happening.
That can be uncomfortable because growth is messy. Learning involves mistakes, correction, awkward moments and decisions we would probably make differently if given another opportunity. Yet being inexperienced does not always mean you are in the wrong place.
Sometimes you are exactly where God wants you, and part of the assignment is learning how to grow without being paralyzed by the fact that other people are watching.
James 1:4 says, “But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”
Growth takes time, but life does not always stop while growth happens.
Kevin and Juanita Did Not Get Years to Prepare
One of the things I love about Kevin Edwards and Juanita Grayson in S.O.L.A.D.™: Soldiers of Light Against Darkness™: The Angelo™ & Angeline™ Chronicles is that they do not begin their journey as polished superheroes. They are young people suddenly told that God has chosen them to help save a world overrun by demons.
Imagine carrying that kind of responsibility while still trying to understand what is happening to your own life. Kevin and Juanita have questions, fears and doubts. Juanita especially struggles with the reality that she never asked to become a superhero. She had plans for college, friends, volunteering and an ordinary future. Suddenly, people are expecting something extraordinary from her.
Wiseman J begins training them physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually, but their preparation period is short. After only three weeks, an emergency changes everything. Wiseman J realizes someone he loves is in danger, and Kevin and Juanita are needed immediately.
He tells them something that perfectly captures this entire lesson: “I thought I would have more time to prepare the two of you, but I don’t.”
Life has a way of saying the same thing.
Sometimes the Assignment Arrives Before You Feel Ready
Kevin and Juanita do not get to tell the danger, “Come back later when we have mastered everything.” Someone needs help now.
They put on their Rings of Wisdom and step into their identities as Angelo™ and Angeline™. Their first real appearance does not happen inside a secret training facility where Wiseman J can quietly correct every mistake. Villagers come outside and watch them fight. Children cheer. Adults gather around. People who have waited and prayed for the arrival of S.O.L.A.D.™ are witnessing what they believe is the fulfillment of prophecy.
Think about the pressure of that moment. Kevin and Juanita are still figuring things out, yet the people around them already see symbols of hope. The villagers are not thinking about how much training Angelo™ and Angeline™ still need. They are thinking about what these heroes might mean for their future.
That is leadership sometimes. People can begin depending on you before you have finished learning how to carry the weight of being depended upon.
Being Nervous Does Not Mean You Do Not Belong There
After Angelo™ and Angeline™ help save Melanie from the demon dogs, the villagers gather around them. Wiseman J prepares to introduce the heroes everyone has been waiting for, and Angeline™ admits something important to Angelo™: she is nervous.
I love that detail because it is human. She has just demonstrated extraordinary abilities in front of an entire village, yet standing in front of everyone still makes her nervous. Angelo™ encourages her, and together they face a crowd chanting the name of S.O.L.A.D.™.
Sometimes we assume capable people stop feeling nervous. We think confidence means never wondering whether we are ready. But courage and nervousness can occupy the same space. You can know God opened a door and still feel butterflies when you walk through it. You can accept a leadership position and still wonder whether people will respect you. You can start your first business, publish your first book, preach your first sermon or become a parent and still think, “Lord, I hope I know what I’m doing.”
Feeling nervous does not automatically mean you are unqualified. Sometimes it simply means you understand that what you are doing matters.
Public Mistakes Feel Bigger Than Private Ones
Learning while people are watching creates another challenge: mistakes feel enormous. When you make a mistake privately, you correct it and move on. When you make one publicly, embarrassment can convince you that everybody will remember it forever. You replay what happened. You imagine what people must be saying. You start questioning whether you should have accepted the opportunity in the first place.
That is when perfectionism becomes dangerous. Perfectionism tells you that qualified people never stumble. Growth tells you that qualified people learn from stumbling.
Angelo™ and Angeline™ do not instantly understand every power, enemy or consequence of every decision. Their journey requires experience. Some lessons cannot be learned inside Wiseman J’s training sessions because there is a difference between practicing for a battle and actually standing in one.
The same is true for us. You can study leadership, but eventually you must lead. You can read about parenting, but eventually the baby comes home. You can practice interviewing, but eventually you sit across from the employer. You can study writing for years, but eventually somebody reads what you wrote.
At some point, preparation has to meet participation.
Do Not Let Embarrassment Become Your Teacher
Mistakes can teach us, but embarrassment is a terrible teacher when we allow it to control the lesson. Embarrassment tells us never to try again, while wisdom asks what we can do differently next time. Embarrassment says everybody saw us struggle, while wisdom reminds us that everybody simply saw a human being learning.
There is humility in allowing yourself to be teachable even when other people are watching. You do not have to pretend you know everything. Some of the strongest leaders are comfortable saying, “I was wrong,” “I need help,” “I don’t know yet” or “I learned something from that.”
Pretending to be finished growing is far more dangerous than allowing people to see that growth is still happening.
Leadership Does Not Require Having Every Answer
One reason public growth feels frightening is that people often assume leadership means having answers. But leadership is not omniscience.
Wiseman J has experience that Kevin and Juanita do not have, yet even he does not know everything that is going to happen. He trains them, advises them and shares what he has learned, but the entire S.O.L.A.D.™ team repeatedly encounters situations that force them to think, adapt, pray and respond to circumstances they could not completely predict.
That is a healthier picture of leadership than pretending one person always knows exactly what to do. A good leader can make a decision and remain teachable. A good leader can be confident without becoming arrogant. A good leader can admit a mistake without believing that admission destroys their credibility.
Sometimes admitting that you learned something actually builds credibility because people discover that your ego is not more important than getting things right.
Give Yourself Permission to Become
There is a version of you today that can handle things that would have overwhelmed you years ago. That person did not appear overnight. You learned, stumbled, prayed, asked questions, watched other people and survived situations you did not think you could handle. Somewhere along the way, experience started turning into wisdom.
That process is still happening.
Sometimes we are so embarrassed about what we do not know today that we forget to appreciate everything we once did not know but eventually learned. You are allowed to be a work in progress. You are allowed to become better at something after you have already started doing it. You are allowed to grow into the position God has placed you in.
The people watching may even need to see that growth. Someone may look at your imperfect beginning and think, “Maybe I can begin too.” Your ability to recover from a mistake may help someone who believes one failure ruined their future. Your willingness to receive correction without quitting may teach someone that embarrassment is survivable.
People do not always need another example of perfection. Sometimes they need an example of progress.
Declaration for the One Growing in Public
Speak this over your life:
I will not allow the fear of being seen learning to keep me from becoming who God is developing me to be.
I will accept that growth takes time, mistakes can become lessons and correction does not mean rejection.
I will remain humble enough to learn, courageous enough to continue and wise enough to ask for help when I need it.
I will not compare my developing skills to someone else’s years of experience, and I will not confuse nervousness with being unqualified.
When God places me in a position that stretches me, I will trust that He can develop me while I am there.
I do not have to know everything today. I simply have to remain willing to grow.
Final Thoughts
Kevin and Juanita did not receive years to perfect Angelo™ and Angeline™ before Dark Earth began depending on them. Wiseman J trained them, but eventually an emergency arrived before he believed their preparation was complete. They had to step forward anyway, and almost immediately people were watching, cheering and placing hope in two young heroes who were still learning what their calling would demand from them.
That may be where you are right now. You received the position, but you are still growing into the title. You started the business, but you are still learning entrepreneurship. You became a parent, caregiver, spouse, minister, manager, author or leader, and now people are watching you learn things you wish you had mastered beforehand.
Do not let that embarrass you out of your assignment.
James tells us to let patience complete its work. Becoming complete is a process, and processes take time. You do not have to pretend you are already the finished product while God is still developing you.
Sometimes you get to practice behind closed doors. Other times, the doors open before you feel ready. When that happens, keep learning, accept correction, ask questions, pray often and keep showing up.
Because sometimes God does not prepare you for the position and then place you in it. Sometimes the position becomes part of how He prepares you.
Step Deeper Into the S.O.L.A.D.™ Journey
If this message spoke to you, experience Kevin Edwards and Juanita Grayson’s journey from ordinary young adults into Angelo™ and Angeline™ in S.O.L.A.D.™: Soldiers of Light Against Darkness™: The Angelo™ & Angeline™ Chronicles.
Their story is filled with superheroes, demons, spiritual warfare and extraordinary abilities, but it is also about two young people learning what faith, responsibility, courage, relationships and leadership require when an entire world begins expecting something from them before they completely understand what is happening themselves.
You can purchase your autographed copies of Book I and Book II directly from my bookstore at:
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