The Sweet Spot

While visiting a local church this morning, we were surprised to be there for the lead pastor of 9 years announcing his resignation to the congregation. No scandalous secret sin, no conflict, he had simply become tired of filling a role that didn't allow him to use his God-given gifts. Instead of never ending meetings, budgets and other executive responsibilities, he takes joy in teaching, preaching and loving people - pastoring the church. He is hoping to remain on staff at the church, but in a role more suiting for his gifts.

Beautiful. He had my respect.

He said, "I want to serve through my sweet spot instead of persevering through every day."

Our goal with moving to Ontario for a year after getting married was to spend intentional time with family and Ontario friends because we sense we may not end up living here long term. And that part has been awesome! Neither Andrew or I have lived in Ontario for longer than 4 months since 2007. I'm loving getting to know his family more and he's enjoying spending time with mine. It's great spending time with friends that we haven't seen regularly for years. And we have seven weddings of friends/family this summer - and we can actually GO to them without having to buy airfare!

God's given us some pretty interesting jobs for the year. Andrew is a youth care worker at Hope Manor, a youth jail. I'm a child and youth worker / educational assistant with the Waterloo School Board, right now working in a classroom of 6 students with learning profiles such as autism, intellectual delays and other learning disabilities. Both jobs that are definitely interesting and require us to use our brains and hearts. We can do them and find success but... not our niche.

I yearn to build relationship.
To share life.
To share wisdom and teach.
To mentor and disciple.
To be able to openly share faith without political barriers.

My heart aches for the west coast.
For beautiful East Vancouver.
For glorious mountains.
For culture beyond industry and farming.
To work out of my sweet spot, and not just persevering through every day.

Passion + Gifts + Need = Sweet Spot.
Passion: mentoring through relationship, pointing to Jesus
Gifts: compassion, encouragement, [some] wisdom, teaching
Need: ____________ (where, God?)

So, where's the sweet spot? Not sure at yet. But oh, it will be good when we get there.