But, It’s Not My Passion…

It’s a phrase we hear all around us.  We hear it at work.  We hear it in homes.  We hear it at church.  We hear it in schools.  If it doesn’t make me feel good, or fulfill me in some way, it’s not worth doing well.  This isn’t about things being hard or easy, it’s about feelings.

This idea of excellence keeps coming up in everything I put my hands too.  It is also effecting or being brought up in the lives of the people around me as well.   When things begin to happen to a lot of people, I tend to sit up and pay attention; God tends to be on the move.  In the last few months, I have tried very hard to really take stock of my actions and the way I do things.  Did/do I do everything with excellence?  I found, quite across the board, that I didn’t/don’t.  If I don’t like it, I slack off.  If I think it’s a waste of time, I don’t put my all into it.  If it doesn’t fit into my schedule, I forget it.  And worst of all, if I find it boring, I find ways to get out of it.  I hate being bored.  This has applied to all areas of my life: my job, my marriage, my relationship with Jesus, everything.

It was the idea of being driven that really started me on this path of excellence.  I found that there were many areas in my life that I could be doing more in or work harder at instead of wasting my time in front of the TV or on the Internet being lazy.  So, I began doubling my efforts.  I took a second job.  I began working on my books in any free time I had.  I put together new plans for Achord.  I poured myself into my work to be driven.  Yet, busyness does not mean excellence.

In Colossians 3:23 it says, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.”  I was failing at doing everything as if unto the LORD.  That is my definition of excellence.  Anyone that knows me knows that I get bored at one of my jobs.  I have to work at making sure I’m doing my best there.  It is easy for me, in my working to provide for my wife, to forget that she likes a romantic gesture from time to time and a husband that spends time with her.  I spent all day with my wife yesterday and it was one of the best I’ve had in a long time.  I am so blessed.

That passage is in regards to how a slave should act to their master.  I doubt seriously that a slave really wants to work for their master, but they were commanded to work as if unto the LORD.  We in America are whiny.  We have it so good and yet we slack off.  This idea has rocked my world.  So, what is it in your lives that you aren’t putting your all into just because it’s not a passion?  Is it family?  Is it work?  Is it God?  If there’s one thing I’ve learned in all of this is that God rarely trusts us with greater things until we are faithful with the little.  You want to achieve your passions then stop trying to make it happen and be faithful with the mundane for a season (seasons can last days, months, or years, so don’t give up) and see what happens.  God is faithful.  I choose to trust him and his timing.  If I’m to be bored for a while, then so be it.  I can at least do my best in the things he has trusted me with.

~Josh Lechlitner