Finding Your Sweet Spot Series

If you are a sports junkie like I am, then you know what I am holding in my hand. Yes, it is a baseball bat, or softball bat rather. I have played baseball since I was a little boy, probably like most of you we started out playing stick ball or some variation. But as we grew up, our game became more sophisticated and so did our equipment. This bat cost me $150, probably the most amount of money I have spent on any sports equipment ever. As I was growing up and watching baseball, there was one thing that always caused me to question the game. Whenever a batter would hit a home run, it seemed as if he knew from the moment the bat hit the ball. And as the ball sailed out of the park, the batter would start trotting around the bases, with bat still in hand, enjoying the applause. It wasn’t until I was in Jr High that I realized how they knew they had hit a home run. You see, for those who don’t know, there is a spot on the bat that when you hit it just right, the ball goes soaring through the air. This place on the bat is called a Sweet Spot. This spot isn’t just on bats, it is on golf clubs, tennis rackets and other various sports equipment. This sweet spot is what you aim for each and every time you try to hit the ball, because you know if you do, good things are going to happen.

Each of our lives have a sweet spot. Each of us has something that we can do where we believe that all is right with the world and things are going to work out. This Sweet Spot in our lives is what Max Lucado talks about in his book "Cure for the Common Life". This sweet spot was given to us by God in order to do the work that He has called us to. If you look around the room, what do you see:

1. People who are into numbers, seeing things that no one else can

2. Girls with songs in their hearts, dreaming of being on American Idol

3. Stay at home mom’s who would never think of leaving their children to go to work

4. The writer, putting everything to paper so he can recall it all later

5. The pastor, some beginning and some at the end, thanking God for the ability to spread His message

God has gifted each of us with a unique talent. This talent is where we find our sweet spot. Ephesians 4:11-16 reads, "it was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

14Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work."

God has a purpose for you. Whether you believe it or not, you are special, God made you to preform a certain act and if you are to selfish to do it, then you will lose out. Our lives within our sweet spot allow us to flourish and to grow.

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This image represents how our life interacts with God’s will. And once we find the area where our lives, our strengths and God’s will come together, we find our sweet spot. We find the calling that God has placed in our life. It can be teaching kindergartners the basics, or cooking meals for the homeless, or running a multi-billion dollar company, or running a small non-profit. God has called each of us to reach beyond ourselves to find what we do best. To find that one thing in our life that we are good at, above others. To find that one talent that we have where no matter why we are doing it, we are completely happy. God knows us, the Psalmists David tells us in Psalms 139:1-3,5

Psalm 139:1-3,5

1 O LORD, you have searched me

and you know me.

2 You know when I sit and when I rise;