PATINA OF COMPETENCE

When I was a young company executive officer my duties included maintenance of the unit’s vehicles, oversight of the supply room and administration of the battalion’s dining facility. That was a lot of responsibility for a twenty-three-year man who had only been in the Army for two years and I did not have a clue how to do any of it.

When I started in that job my battalion executive officer (the man one level up), a major fifteen years my senior, gave me three great pieces of advice: 1) read the applicable regulations; 2) memorize the key parts; and 3) fake your way through until you can make your way through. I looked up to him, so I took his advice and found that he was right. Reading the regs and being able to spout the critical passages from memory (even if I did not fully understand them) gave me a patina of competence that carried me through long enough to gain actual competence.

What my major knew (and what I would learn) is that the Army would thrust its leaders into positions for which they were (at best) marginally equipped which forced them to catch up fast so they could reach maximum performance as quickly as possible. At which point, the Army would then thrust the man into something completely different so that he could start the process over. Even though I would feel overmatched at every new thrust, I learned to trust the process—read, memorize, and fake it until I made it. Actual competence always followed the patina of competence.

At the time I did not realize it, but now I see that going through that thrust-catch up-perform cycle was great preparation for my life as a leader in Christ, where my major’s advice (slightly modified) is equally applicable: 1) read the Bible; 2) memorize the key parts; and 3) fake your way through until you make your way through.

Every man must decide for himself whether to heed God’s call to disciple, but no man need worry that he will be unable to perform if he does. God does does not call the qualified, He qualifies the called. By reading and memorizing the word, we obtain the patina of competence that will grow into actual competence if we abide in Him.