Do What You Do Well
A little boy was overheard talking to himself as he strutted through the backyard, wearing his baseball cap and toting a ball and bat. “I’m the greatest hitter in the world,” he announced.
Then, he tossed the ball into the air, swung at it, and missed.
“Strike One!” he yelled. Undaunted, he picked up the ball and said again, “I’m the greatest hitter in the world!” He tossed the ball into the air. When it came down he swung again and missed. “Strike Two!” he cried.
The boy then paused a moment to examine his bat and ball carefully. He spit on his hands and rubbed them together. He straightened his cap and said once more, “I’m the greatest hitter in the world!”
Again he tossed the ball up in the air and swung at it. He missed. “Strike Three!”
“Wow!” he exclaimed. “I’m the greatest pitcher in the world!”
Sometimes in life you have to stop and ask yourself, “What am I really good at? What should I be doing with my time and energy that will make me most effective?” This is a question that I am really examing in my own heart right now. There have been several times lately where I’ve been doing a lot of swinging and not hitting a home run. The irony is that if I would just slightly change my perspective of what I’m doing, I would be successful. For example, I am a great administrator…until I try to cover everybody else’s jobs that I failed to delegate correctly. Then I fail at both the job I am doing and the opportunity to administrate well.
I have found it interesting how many people put themselves in the wrong place in life and ministry. I can obviously see the giftings and the talents that someone has and yet for whatever purpose, we all put ourselves in every other position, but the one that we would excel in. Why do we do that? Why do we fight our strengths and passions so much in order to be something that we think we want to be, but aren’t equipped for?
My excuses sound a lot like, “Well, someone has to cover that, so I might as well…” And all the while, I know that my excuse is just bad leadership. There are also a myriad of other excuses that I hear all of the time as well for why people don’t do their best…time, money, kids, experience… For whatever reason we let all of the stuff in life get in the way of allowing us to be a “10” somewhere.
And the result…we look like bad batters instead of great pitchers.