I'm No Expert Stall

I need to learn more before I can ...

As I was sitting at the lunch table taking in her thoughts and recommendations on how to grow my ministry and take it "on the road" so to speak, I found myself getting overwhelmed. 

She was younger than I and her husband was very successful in the online market, so in other words, she knew more about growing online than I did. 

She shared away and talked very casually about how to do this and where to look for that. It was a wonderful lunch and aside from feeling overwhelmed, I was renewed with energy. 

TIME TO GROW! was my motto that day.

I drove home and rushed up to the office. I sat down at the laptop and googled "how to create an online course". Within seconds, links to articles and videos appeared. 

I settled in to begin my learning. 

Roughly an hour later, the balloon of motivation had been deflated. 

The familiar thought of who am I kidding, and are you seriously thinking about creating an online course, do you even know how much effort and time and money that will take!

Oh the barkings of Piper (that's my ego). 

Then something else bubbled up. A feeling I hadn't felt in awhile. The one of not being adequate. 

You may know the one. The familiar ring of "I'm not an expert...yet. I need to learn more before I can proceed" crept in and took hold. 

Yea, that's it. I felt better already. Off the hook once again thanks to the old standby of not knowing enough. 

Instead of just figuring it out and getting the heck going, I stalled. The stall felt so grown up. It felt so responsible. Imagine it, I was giving myself a pat on the back for procrastinating all in the name of "I need to learn more".

Have you done that too? Have you found yourself heading face first off the education cliff when you know deep (deep) inside that you should be face first in doing rather than learning?

I don't believe the day will come when we stop learning and growing within our ministry. I don't believe it is a destination that we ever truly reach. 

I believe that we must act according to what we know NOW all the while learning along the way. They are parallel roads. 

What are you putting off today? What have you been avoiding?