IGNORE YOUR WEAKNESSES?
Surely, you have seen American Idol auditions of people who are terrible singers? The seasoned judges try to let them know it’s time to take up another career path. Forty-two million viewers immediately know the judges are right but those auditioning are often the last to figure it out. Sometimes the rejected want-to-be’s throw a tantrum or insist that they will still make it big in their music career despite the “temporary” set back.
There is a widely acceptable notion that we are to spend time, energy and resources strengthening the areas where we demonstrate big time weaknesses. I suppose this is good advice in crucial relationships like marriage and parenting. We cannot afford to be too awfully weak in such areas. But when it comes to our occupations, it is not always a good thing to try to strengthen our weaknesses.
Some weaknesses are always going to be our personal reality. No matter how idealistic we can be, some areas of our performance are always going to be far less than we would like for them to be. You and I are going to stink at some things while someone else remains pretty, solid in that area. The more efficient and strategic way to approach weaknesses is to surround yourself with those who are strong in that area. Marginalize your weaknesses.
MAKE YOUR STRENGTHS STRONGER
An even better approach to your work and ministry involves making your strengths even stronger. You are uniquely proficient in one or maybe two areas. You are probably passionate concerning those things directly associated with your strengths. Get even better at those areas of giftedness! Be an even better communicator, organizer or trainer and leave your lame and anemic areas for someone else to shine. Let’s not rob others of opportunities to thrive and move in their gifts.
If people are very aware of your weaknesses on the job it’s likely because you continue to do tasks that you are not very good at. You are either miscast in your job and need to move into your strengths or you are not letting someone else operate in theirs. All the time and energy we spend trying to raise the bar in our weak areas costs us three times the investment we would have had yielded if we had refined our strengths! Let’s reprioritize our daily activities so we can bear more fruit and glorify the Lord while giving others an opportunity to do their thing.
But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. And if they were all one member, where would the body be? 1 Cor. 12:18-19
