petering out...

Do you ever get the sense you've Peter Principled yourself out? The Peter Principle says everyone rises to his or her level of incompetence, that is, that when you know how to do a job, you'll be promoted or given additional duties until you reach a place where you no longer know what you are doing... and there you'll stay.

If I had to be perfectly honest, I'd say that's pretty much how I'm feeling right now in just about every area of my life. Pastoring, being a dad, being a husband... interpersonal relationships and general life skills. I feel like any heat I might have had to throw got thrown a good while ago.

It's not as though my life is particularly difficult- I don't have many challenges- considerably fewer than a lot of people. But what I do have tends to stymie me. My own inabilities seem perfectly matched to the challenges I face.

Or more likely, they create them...
And if my particular challenges and created by my particular inabilities... erg.

So I'm praying- Praying that God will help me gain new sensitivities and skills and grow as a husband, a father, a pastor. Probably in that order too.

Sometimes I just hate the fact that it seems like the only way to really learn how to do something is to fail at it.

Comments

[Charlie Wear]

Hey Bob,
You are just a victim of the "Timothy" principle, forget that nimrod "Peter." There has to be a reason that Paul wrote to his best "pastor." He probably sent a letter to Paul that sounded like your post.

And Paul wrote back:
3I thank God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. 4Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy. 5I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also. 6For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.

Hang in there man...

[Russ]

Hey Bob,

I always appreciate your honesty. Know that as you share your struggle there are others who are encouraged and emboldened even if in just knowing they are not alone.

It seems to me that when we give life to something (a kid, a dream, a church), that thing becomes a source of incredible joy and incredible pain. It hurts to create, because we love it.

Just saying, your struggle is to your credit.