Hustle

13 Aug

“What you lack in talent can be made up with desire, hustle and giving 110% all the time.” ~ Don Zimmer

I will never forget a certain moment in my past.  I was taking a year off between college and theology and was working as an orderly in a local hospital.  Orderlies are often called upon to do grunt work as well as some minor procedures.  I had trained to do a certain procedure and believed that I had it down pat.  However, when called upon to do the procedure, I was very nervous.

The person who trained me accompanied me to the patient’s room.  He set the stage and put me at ease.  What he did was to tell the patient that he was new and was learning the procedure and asked if it was permissible to watch me do the procedure.  The patient had no objection, so I went from nervous student mode to teacher mode.  Throughout the entire procedure, I “instructed” my superior on what to do and performed flawlessly.

You could say that I had definitely lacked the “talent” at that point in time because I had never done that procedure before; however, I was motivated to do my best and to teach my teacher, so I gave 110%.  Life is like that.  We are not always the champion.  Sometimes, we are the person on the side looking on and wanting to do what we see.  If all we ever do is look on from the outside, we will never accomplish what we desire.

There are many people who look in on people doing ministry.  They may admire the person who goes to the nursing home to visit the residents.  They may admire the person who goes to the homeless shelter or soup kitchen.  They may admire the person who distributes Communion or lectors or cantors.  However, if all they ever do is admire and never volunteer to do it themselves, they are missing out on wonderful opportunities for ministry.

Ministry is made up of two components and one ingredient: desire and action.  We must want to do the ministry and we must go about doing it.  We may not be proficient at first; but, if we do not begin, we will never learn.  I mentioned that ministry is made up of two components and one ingredient.  If we have the desire and get involved in the action, we merely need to apply one very simple ingredient: love.

Love covers a multitude of things.  Love takes care of any inexperience we may have.  Love smooths over the jitters with which we may approach a ministry.  Love makes our service to others much more profound.  Love is the universal language.

We always have opportunities.  What we need is the desire, hustle, and total giving of ourselves to embrace the opportunity and turn it into fruitful ministry.

FAITH ACTION:  Do not let inexperience get in the way of you giving nothing but your very best to the Lord today.