What If God Wants to Use You Exactly As You Are

“I feel like a poser. That’s the heart of it.” A rock sank in my gut as my thumb clicked ‘send.’

On the surface this confession was just the next installment in a voice text thread with a friend. We’d been discussing the root of my burnout. But as soon as I spoke the words, I sensed a sinking epiphany.

Is that really why I’m exhausted? Why there’s always another task to tend to, and another, and another, and I’ve forgotten how to rest?

Earlier in the conversation I’d explained my (misguided) reasoning that someone with my depth of knowledge and experience in digital marketing should have built a seven-figure business by now—supposed proof that what I teach works, because I’ve reached the heights myself.

Yes, my fellow writers, speakers, dreamers and believers – follow these best practices, and you, too, will become a millionaire!!

Except that was never my goal. I didn’t set out to build a million-dollar business. I just wanted to bring in enough extra income to pay for family vacations and private school and pad the household savings. And I wanted to use the gifts God gave me to do it.

And sure enough, when I did, my colleagues began asking how. So I started showing them what I learned, which led to coaching and online courses and a business I barely even realized I was building brick by brick.

So when my dear friend Alicia, a fellow writer and Jesus girl, asked me recently to examine why I’m tired… at first I didn’t know how to answer.

Before I started coaching, I was content with my work, my pace, and my results.

But after? Hustle culture came courting. My social feeds flooded with sponsored posts from other coaches claiming they had the secret sauce to a million dollars and all I had to do was [fill in the blank here—every guru’s “secret” contradicted the last].

And these “success stories” told me I was not an expert. Because “experts” reside on a different plane. They don’t just fund private college, they hire private chefs. They retire their husbands. They post screenshots of their $90K months and tell us, you can have this amazing life, too!

“If you’ve been believing that, no wonder you’re tired,” Alicia told me. Praise God for friends who speak truth into our lives.

The best coaches aren’t the ones who played pro, she said. They’re the ones who can motivate others to get there.

Think about that. Who was your favorite teacher in high school?

The art teacher? Did he ever host a private showing at a New York gallery? Probably not. But he led you to believe you could.

The English teacher? She probably never published a bestselling novel. But she taught you to love books.

The history teacher, now that one’s easy. He wasn’t even alive during the Civil War, but man could he ever make you feel like you were there. You owe your passion for American folklore to that guy.

Do you see where I’m going with this? Alicia is right. The best teachers and coaches and mentors aren’t necessarily the people who achieved great personal success. They’re the people who know what you need to know in order to achieve your own personal success, whatever that looks like. And they have a talent for sharing their knowledge in a way you can understand, appreciate, and apply.

That, in itself, is a definition of success.

So. What do you know? What do people come to you for? Do you share your wisdom or do you shy away from the opportunity because you think you’re not smart enough, accomplished enough, renowned enough yet?

The very thing that makes us feel unqualified might be exactly what makes us qualified. When we're still close enough to the struggle to remember what it felt like, when we’re honest about our imperfections, when we’re real about the fact that we don’t have it all figured out—that’s when we become the kind of teacher someone can actually trust.

Because here’s the truth nobody talks about: expertise isn’t just about achievements. It's about experience. It’s about lessons learned, whether through failure or success. And we’ve all been gaining that kind of experience every single day of our lives, whether we realize it or not.

Consider Moses. When God asked him to lead the Israelites, Moses immediately started listing his disqualifications: “Who am I that I should go?”

But God's response wasn't about Moses needing more credentials—it was about showing up with what he already had: “What is that in your hand?” (Exodus 4:2)

God was asking Moses to look at what was already there. A simple shepherd’s staff became the tool that parted the Red Sea.

What’s in your hand right now? What knowledge, what experience, what hard-won wisdom have you been dismissing as “not enough yet”? The woman who needs exactly what you know doesn’t care if you haven’t built a million-dollar empire. She cares that you understand her struggle because you’ve been there, too.

Your willingness to share what you’ve learned—even while you’re still learning—isn’t a sign that you’re a fraud. It’s a sign that you’re human. And often that’s exactly what another human needs to see.

So let’s stop hustling or waiting for enough accomplishment that will never feel like enough anyway. The world doesn’t need another perfect expert. It needs more real women willing to say: 

“Here's what I learned, and maybe it’ll help you too. Let's do this together.”