Have you heard of ‘imposter syndrome’? It’s a phenomenon where those who are perfectly qualified, with all the required skills, fear being exposed as a fraud in their workplace. They could be one of the top people in their field yet be paralysed by a nagging anxiety that it will all come crashing down.
Many Christians struggle from ‘imposter syndrome’ when we think about our faith. We’re tempted to doubt our value as God’s child, either because we are burdened by the shame of sin or we feel useless because we can’t contribute in various ways.
But truth is not found by looking at our feelings. We cannot discover who we are by looking within. When tempted to despair, we should stop looking within ourselves and start looking outside ourselves. We should look to God’s Word.
In God’s Word we find those comforting words, ‘in one Spirit we were all baptised into one body … and all were made to drink of one Spirit’ (1 Cor 12:13). Feel like a foot but wish you were a hand? Wish you could offer more? Listen to God’s Word. Your value is not found in what you offer. Your value is in what God has made you. You are part of the church, the body of Christ.
Feel worse than a foot? Completely useless? ‘The parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honourable we bestow the greatest honour, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty…’ (v22-23).
We are all valuable to the body. Can you pray? That is a valuable contribution – more than you can imagine. But our value isn’t in what we can offer, but in who God has made us – part of Christ’s body.