Its OK to Not Be Good at Things

Sarah and I were talking last night about the stuff that I like to do.  One of those things is photography.  I'm at least somewhat decent at taking pictures.  Part of being successful is having the proper equipment.  You also need a way to advertise and get your talent out there, and thats usually a website.  Mine is frustrating to me.  I'm just never satisfied with the site.  To make it really shine, I need to invest much more time and money into it...something I just don't feel that I can do at this point in my life.  This morning, as I saw the newest Youth Ministry Daily email pop into my inbox, I just laughed to myself.

*Disclaimer* I have not read the email yet, because I wanted inspiration, not duplication :)

You see, I really like to do a lot of different things.  My problem, however, is that if I begin doing something, I expect to do it to be amazing.  Not just amazing for an amateur, but amazing for the world.  And have a lot of these types of things that I like to do.  If they're not amazing, I want to keep working on it (and stressing myself out) to reach that goal.  For some reason, especially with visual things, I expect pro results every time.  Now I do believe, if you're doing something, you need to do it to the best of your ability (as if doing it for the Lord)...but I obsess about it.

On the flip side, I am terrible at some things.  I want to be creative and look at the big picture, but little detail things slip my mind.  I'm not that great of a communicator on an individual level.  My brain works backwards sometimes.

I told Sarah last night, "Maybe I should just give up photography, trying to be really good is just a distraction."  Her response was, "No, don't do that.  Just be OK with what you do.  You're not a full time photographer.  You are good at taking pictures, and you do get small jobs here and there.  You do enough."

God has blessed each of us with unique gifts and has placed us in unique situations to use those gifts.  As a part of a youth ministry team, I often forgot to look where I am and consider who God has placed in our ministry to accomplish his goals.  We need to make sure we are using these people and their gifts for his purposes.

Here are a few encouraging thoughts I came up with:

• You obviously love certain things and are passionate about them...pursue them
• Partner in ministry with those who have different strengths than you
• Delegate tasks that you aren't good at (or hate) to those people 
• You cannot do ministry alone
• Other people are really good at stuff too
• Don't stress yourself out at not being great at something (have you ever seen me play basketball?)