Sweet Spot

             Sometimes articles, blogs, and sermon prep seems to come easy. It like a quiet conversation where all the information and parts and pieces just come together in simple and peaceful harmony. That is no doubt a Divine time.

               And at other times none of it comes easy. This column has been the latter. After a day of starting and stopping with different ideas that all dead ended by the third paragraph, today I took a trip downtown to one of my favorite stores, Mauk’s. Of course I love the merchandise in Mauk’s, but I also love the people there too.

               And while sitting on the world’s most comfortable couch talking with Mary Ann about church, mission trips, and children, she recalled a time her daughter had asked her, “do you think God has a sweet spot for me?”   

               And there it was.

               The Sweet Spot.

               What a beautiful picture, right? I played baseball when I was younger so the thought of the Sweet Spot automatically brought me back to those swings that connected with the pitch and you didn’t even feel the ball hit the bat. Yeah, that was the Sweet Spot.

               I have heard golfers talk about that Sweet Spot when teeing off the perfect drive. Even tennis players have a sweet spot between ball and racquet.

               And when you think about it, we do too. Not a sweet spot where you pack on a few extra pounds from your love of red velvet cake, but a Divine Sweet Spot. A holy place in your soul, where when met with a holy activity, results in a perfected driven purpose.

               Most people I know live their lives looking for their sweet spot. But I don’t think we find it by looking for it.

               “For I know the plans I have you”, declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”. (Jeremiah 29:11)

               “You (Lord) created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb”. (Psalm 139:13)

               “I (God) will sustain you, I have made you and I will carry you. I will sustain you and I will rescue you”. (Isaiah 46:4)

               “And we know in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose”. (Romans 8:28)

               And the list of verses could go on and on. Reminders and promises of God’s abiding presence, love and direction.

               We find it in connection with doing, serving, loving, and being the created being the Creator created us to be.

And where and when this all meets in us, when our life (our daily, ordinary, working and walking, eating and playing, average life) meets our Sweet Spot (that Divine-infused, holy purpose-filled and love driven, resolute tenacity of our core true being) then we are living with holy purpose.

In 2005 Max Lucado published a book entitled “Cure for the Common Life”. If you feel that you aren’t living life in your Sweet Spot, I would recommend this book to you. Perhaps you need to really understand yourself, who you are in light of the One who created you. Or perhaps you need to re-evaluate what you are doing, or maybe why you are doing it. Perhaps it is your motives, perhaps it is your heart.

But once you find and live into your Sweet Spot, I promise that you will know it.

“I have come that you might have life, and have it abundantly”—Jesus. (John 10:10)

And that abundant life is found in your Sweet Spot.