Did Moses Have Imposter Syndrome Too?

“If God put big dreams and big desires on your heart, He wants you to go after them faithfully. He doesn’t want you cowering in the corner feeling insecure or unequipped.” ~Erica Ligenza

Have you heard the term “Imposter Syndrome?” The American Psychological Association describes it as a phenomenon that “occurs among high achievers who are unable to internalize and accept their success. They often attribute their accomplishments to luck rather than to ability, and fear that others will eventually unmask them as a fraud.”* 

Imposter Syndrome begs the question: “What right do I have to be here?” One of its tenets is thought to be feeling completely alone in it, as if you are the only person who doesn’t know what they’re doing in this great big world. 

Recently, I revisited a story in the Bible and came across an interesting character. A certain line from this character made me think that maybe, just maybe, he may have dealt with some Imposter Syndrome too.

Have you ever read the story of Moses and the Burning Bush? It’s a story that, even though I’ve read many times, I still find myself pulling insights from. Exodus 3:3-11 (NIV) reads:

Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”

When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”

And Moses said, “Here I am.”

“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

It’s Moses’ question that hits the most: “Who am I that I should go…?” When I read this, I imagine Moses put extra emphasis on the word “I.”

How many of you can relate to Moses? He didn’t feel he possessed the competency to pull off God’s extraordinary caper. Like many of us, he thought God just had the wrong guy. It sounds like Imposter Syndrome isn’t a new phenomenon of the 21st century but rather a constraint of humanity. It’s always been around, and to some extent, we may all feel like the wrong people for the task. We’re all together in feeling like pretenders.

Even though he may have felt ill-equipped for the job, God gave Moses the words to speak and prepared him well for the task. God offered space and grace to grow with every uncharted step. Moses wasn’t expected to have it all figured out, and neither are you. 

God’s remedy for Moses’ feelings of inadequacy comes in Exodus 3:12: “I will be with you.” The same is true for us today. He walks with us in our feelings of phoniness and affirms what has always been true: That we are not imposters and have been specifically chosen for His mission. Imposter Syndrome is just a feeling, but God’s words are truth.

This story proves that God is in the business of using self-proclaimed imposters for His Kingdom-bringing purpose. God did it for Moses, and He’s ready to do it for us too.

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*To learn more about Imposter Syndrome, see: Feel Like a Fraud? on apa.org
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Photocred: Wikimedia Commons