Discovering My Niche

Introduction: The Back Story

I’ll always recall it as “the day the lights went out”. That’s really the only way I know to describe what was happening to me that morning. It was as if someone had thrown a switch that totally extinguished any semblance of joy and contentment I had known not so long ago. One more request by a totally innocent church member was all it took to send me reeling over the edge.

There I was, a Christian man in my mid-40’s, happily-married to a lady I absolutely adored and considered my best friend. Janie and I had all the basic creature comforts we needed. I was comfortable in my career. Many of my minister friends would have given their right arm to serve in the church and with the staff I saw every day. Life couldn’t have been any better, could it? So, what was going on?

If honest with myself, I would have admitted I could see this “power failure” coming for some time. Maybe I had been guilty of attempting to do too many things – and doing none of them particularly well. Oh, I was busy, but with a vague sense that I was working harder and longer with little to show for my efforts. I kept asking myself, “Is this all there is?” It became harder to drag myself out of bed each morning to face another day just like the day before and the day before that. My enthusiasm and passion had been misplaced somewhere along the way. Now, I had been knocked to my knees with the realization that the charade was over. I could no longer fool myself or others. I had hit rock bottom!

Over time, I had begun taking my spiritual connection with God for granted. Yes, that happens to ministers, too! Rather foolishly, I was attempting to do too much in my own strength and wisdom. I found myself becoming a person I was never created to be and trying to do things I was never called or gifted to do. Too many others – and certainly not God -- were pulling the strings in my life. More than not being on the same page with God, we weren’t even reading from the same book!

As is true with many others in our 365/24/7 world, I was feeling the strain in every facet of my life. But, that I found myself in this situation was totally my fault. By allowing myself to be consumed by the busyness of life and ministry, I had lost touch with God in some fundamental ways. I needed to slow down, take a step back, and spend some time reflecting.

Now, for the first time in a long time, I found myself seeking God and his vision for the next steps of my life and ministry. I longed for that contentment with myself and the fulfillment I had known once before. Looking back, my one regret is that I was almost 20 years in to ministry before I began this journey.

What began as crisis became a watershed experience in my life. At the time, I recalled some advice I’d received years earlier from a counselor friend. “Gary, under God, take control of your life – or someone else will.” With that counsel ringing in my ears, I began my journey toward a new lease on life and ministry, one that would impact me personally, professionally, emotionally, and, most of all, spiritually. Strangely enough, it began with an insight from my experiences on the golf course. Seeking Our “Sweet Spot”

If you’ve played very much golf at all, you know about or have heard about the “sweet spot”. It’s that moment to be savored when golfer, swing, golf ball, and club all come together with a picture-perfect swing and results you only read about in Golf Digest. The swing is perfect; the hands feel no vibration as club crushes ball. The ball travels where it was meant to go -- and far! You’ve hit the sweet spot!

Let me assure you there is a “sweet spot” in your life and mine. It’s that point when who we are – our abilities, personality, passion – intersects with God’s purpose and plan for us. The end result is a sense of meaningful life, contentment, and significance. We’re living the life for which we are created. In short, it’s that quality of life all of us long for.

But, let’s be honest. Just as finding the sweet spot on a golf club requires tremendous eye-hand coordination, realizing our personal “sweet spot” doesn’t happen by accident. How many of us, at some point in life, find ourselves asking questions like these?

• Is the life I live now all there is?

• What’s the point?

• What do I do with myself for the rest of my life?

We desperately long for something more than trite answers for those questions. Because, as Christian researcher George Barna reminds us, “Sadly, there is one fact we all will deal with eventually -- There are no “do-overs” in life!”