I’m convinced. This book coming out… This will be the project where people will finally see what a fraud I am. People will read my devotional, and think to themselves, “This guy doesn’t know anything. Why have we been listening to him?”
I’ve expressed this fear to a few friends. They laugh. But it’s a real fear.
It’s a fear because I know what’s inside me. I know I’m far from perfect. I know some days I’m completely inspired and creative. While other days I have nothing in my tank. People listen to my opinions on things that I have no business having an opinion on. I’m not a theologian. I’m not a Bible scholar. I never went to seminary. Yet I have a devotional coming out next month.
Am I an actual fraud? No way. But that doesn’t stop me from feeling it.
I think that feeling is an important feeling, though. I think it’s the check-and-balance inside us that reminds us we aren’t as cool as we think we are—or perhaps as others say we are.
It reminds me I have nothing good that I wasn’t first given. God gave. My parents gave. My friends gave. My old boss gave. My critics gave. Everything I have, any good inside of me, isn’t my own. I owe so much to so many people. Yet I get to reap the benefits.
But I can reap the benefits. If I hold myself back from trying big things because of this fear of being found out as a fraud… I can’t let that happen.
And you can’t let that happen. Are you fraud? No. Do you feel like a fraud? Probably. And that’s okay. Push through that fear and create. Make something that matters.
“The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you’re uncool.”
– Lester Bangs (PSH), Almost Famous
I’m RICH then! 😛
I came across this a couple of years (I guess four now) ago. I’m not able to verify, but it’s resonated with me.
“Creative people all have one thing in common: we know we’re faking it and are afraid people are going to find out.” Glen Keane, Disney
Love it 🙂