Consciously Incompetent

This blog is the start of a new adventure for me.  I’ve been struggling with trying to get a grasp of all of the things, people and events that clamor for my time and attention every day.  I work full time in the software industry, help my husband with his business, take care of all household issues including finances and am the primary resource to manage our 17-year-old daughter and two very strange dogs.   Our 26-year-old son is married and has just presented me with my first grandchild.  Unfortunately, they live 1600 miles away.

In any case, I often find myself at the end of the day feeling overwhelmed.  Forget about “me time”.  In fact I’m not even sure what “me time” means.  The magazines I read have been telling me for years that I need so called “me time” and since my mind and body are starting to go to pot, I probably need to figure out what it is and get some…and fast.

Along the way it’s become apparent to me that I’ve been neglecting my personal spiritual life.  Not the regularly scheduled collective worship, fellowship and study time, but the one-on-one personal time with God.  Because I truly believe this has to change, last night I thought of a way to feed my spiritual life and give myself some “me” time and hopefully relieve a little stress in the process. 

My plan is to write about my daily struggles as a child of God, wife, mother, employee, daughter, homemaker, feeder of dogs, etc.  Along the way I’ll try to find the spiritual lessons God’s trying to teach me as well as scripture to help and comfort me as I travel on my life journey.

I have a dear friend in Florida who on the day we met gave me the steps to knowledge.  He was teaching a software class on my first day of work at a new company and this was part of the lesson.  These steps were designed to help us in learning computer software, but I think they apply to life…especially to life as a Christian.

Imagine a staircase with four steps.  The bottom step is labeled “Unconsciously Incompetent”.  It means that not only do you not know something, but you also don’t know you don’t know it.  Every time I hear that label, I think of my son as a teenager.  He thought he knew everything about everything and grownups just didn’t have a clue.  We as parents understand that he was a clueless kid just beginning his path to knowledge about life.

The next step up the staircase is labeled “Consciously Incompetent”.  That’s the moment you figure out you don’t know something.  In a software environment it’s when you first find out about a new product you have to support.  You have to demo the product in a week and you don’t know how to start.  It’s when you panic before figuring out how to learn what you need to know to accomplish the task at hand.

As you start working on a task and gain knowledge you become “Consciously Competent”.   You know how things work but you have to think about each step along the way.  As time goes by you don’t have to think as hard about it and you work your way to the top step, which is “Unconsciously Competent”.  Did you ever have a day when you find yourself pulling into your driveway but don’t remember half the trip home?  That’s being “Unconsciously Competent” about driving home.  You’ve done it so many times, you don’t even think about it anymore.

Where am I on the staircase of my personal life as a child of God?  I’m probably on different steps depending on the area of my spiritual walk being discussed.  I’m positive there are areas as God’s servant where I’m “Unconsciously Incompetent”  and maybe some things I do for God in a “Consciously Competent” way, but I think most of the time “Consciously Incompetent” best describes my one-on-one time with God. 

Perhaps this blog will be another way to help me move up the staircase to become closer to God in more areas of my spiritual life as well as properly focus on what is really, truly important to God.  Maybe along the way what I learn and share will encourage others to keep climbing their spiritual staircase as well.

“For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”  Philippians 1:6 [NAS]