Please — can someone else be in charge?

Have you ever just wanted shout, “It’s someone else’s turn!” You’re tired of volunteering to bake the cookies, to organize the parent list, to clean up. You’re always the one to organize the family reunion, to load the presentation into the computer, to shovel the walks? Please, can someone else be in charge?

I’ve been there. I shirk for a while, pretend to be too busy, and flick on the television or sit in the backyard thumbing through magazines or I play a game on my phone. “There,” I think, “Now I’m in control of my time.”

But it doesn’t take long before this mindless life works against me. I’m not refreshed. I’m not more at ease. I’m miserable. 

I was thinking about this when I wrote the intro to  Make a Difference: Growth in Leadership. It’s about that place we all get when we want to just hide from responsibility.

Here’s something to chew on —

Have you ever been part of a team where no one will step up and take charge? Everyone looks around, hoping, praying that someone, anyone else will be responsible.

 

We cling to the wall, hiding our ability. We know full well that we could be part of the solution, and instead, by our passivity, we become part of the problem. We all have our excuses. I’ve used every one of them. “I’m too busy.” “I don’t have the right skills.” “It’s not the right time.” “I don’t have the experience.” “I’m too young.” “I’m too old.”

 

Life is full of too many “cants.”

 

Acting small doesn’t do a thing for the world. Minimizing your talents wastes the investments that others have placed in you. Playing it safe doesn’t impact your workplace, your school or your family. When you say, “I’m nothing special, “you’re actually questioning your God-given talents, the belief that others have in you, and the trust of those that you influence.

 

When you don’t step up you deny a certain part of your personhood. It’s like revolting against your very DNA. You can dye your hair, but you’re still a brunette. You can buy special colorized lenses, but your eyes are still hazel. You can sit back and play dormant like everyone else, but it’s killing you on the inside. **

You don’t bring pleasure to God by  trying to be someone else.  Anytime you reject any part of yourself, you are rejecting his sovereignty in creating you.

What He Says : “You have no right to argue with your Creator. You are merely a clay pot shaped by a potter. The clay doesn’t ask, ‘Why did you make me this way?'” (Isaiah 45:9 CEV).

It this you, too? Do you find it impossible to run from your God-given talents?

** From Make a Difference: Growth in Leadership, available on Amazon.

Thanks to Pastor Chad Brugeman for preaching about not acting small. You made me think big!