The Sweet Spot

I love the game of golf. I am not by any means a good golfer. As a matter of fact, I pretty much stink at golf, but that doesn’t stop me from going to the driving rang and it doesn’t keep me from playing a round of golf from time to time. I usually play golf with my wife as she isn’t much better.

In golf, when you hit the ball at the right spot on the club, they call that the sweet spot. Now several things have to happen all at once to accomplish this feat. You have to have your grip on the club the right way. Your stance needs to be right. You have to swing the club correctly and not too fast or too hard, but at the right speed. You can’t lift your head up too soon. You have to use your lower body moving in the right way.

All those things have to line up and occur for you to hit the ball on the sweet spot. And how do you know when you hit the ball on the sweet spot? Oh, you will know. You end up hitting the ball effortlessly, you will hear a high pitch “teek”, and the ball will travel much further and straighter than all of your other shots. For weekend hackers, it doesn’t happen too often, but when it does, it feels very nice.

This is the same with your calling in life. I am reading Max Lucado’s book “The Cure for the Uncommon Life”. He talks about the two criteria you need to find your “sweet spot”. What is it you love to do and what do you do very well? As I said at the beginning, I love golf, but I don’t do this well. So, I know I won’t be on the PGA tour in this lifetime.

Can I be totally transparent with you? I love to talk in front of crowds. I often have dreamed of speaking/ preaching in front large crowds and people coming up afterwards telling me how I just inspired them or how what I told them changed their life. I know that is all pride talking there. The Lord keeps reminding me that He did not wire me that way. He wired me to work very well one-on-one or up to small groups. Whenever I get up in front of a large group, I find myself fumbling around and doing a mediocre job. But get me to meet with one person at a time and spend time with them, I shine! That’s not being boastful, because you that know me on a personal level will agree with that statement.

So that’s the question I have for you: What do you love to do and what do you do very well? Once you find out what that is, take it one step further. Whatever that one thing is, be the best at it. In Colossians 3:23, Paul writes: Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.

A few years ago, I was in New York at a pastor’s conference at The Brooklyn Tabernacle. I had to go to men’s room. In there I encountered a young man whose job was to clean the restrooms. While he was mopping, he was whistling the hymn, “Great Is Thy Faithfulness”. When I told him he had encouraged me, he got this huge smile on his face and told me he counted it a privilege to be cleaning the restrooms in the House of the Lord. This young man got it. He found what he loved to and did very well. And he did it with joy!

My prayer for you is that you find out how God wired you and how you put this into action. This will bring Him glory! Blessings.