God Given Hustle

What are you doing with your dreams? How are you encouraging others to pursue their dreams? Have you crushed your children’s spirits as it relates to their dreams? These questions flooded my mind as I spoke with a co-worker of mine this morning. What started as a simple “Good Morning” turned into a moving, inspiring and thought provoking experience. She inquired about how my kids were enjoying the summer and I shared that my kids were in camp. My son is in regular summer camp (run around, water play, field trip..etc) and my daughter is in a performing arts camp. My co-worker talked about how her parents had her attend camp during the summers to keep her out of trouble. Her face illuminated though as she recalled her experiences with arts and crafts and being introduced to what she called “freestyle” drawing. She went on to describe how over the next couple of years she perfected the craft to the point where she was offered a scholarship to an Art Program due to a comic strip that she created. As quickly as her face lit up, it dimmed as she recounted how her dream was crushed as her parents thought that drawing was a waste of time so they did not allow her to pursue her dream. She was crushed and discarded all of her art supplies and to this day, she is not able to draw, even after taking classes and trying on her own. She now works in a field that doesn’t allow her to take advantage of her gifts and has seemingly lost them.

My heart was broken as I heard her story. I encouraged her as best I could and she said that she will continue to try to get her gift back. Her story is like so many of our stories. Our passions in life have been put aside and our dreams have crushed by our parents, spouses, teachers, “friends”, society, bosses etc. I’m sure many of you can recall being excited about something as a child and having someone let the air out of your balloon because they didn’t understand your passion or your vision. Some of us as parents are guilty of projecting our dreams and our fears onto our kids. Sometimes we mislabel this act and say that we are protecting them from themselves or from a disappointing life. In many cases we are trying to just let them live a “safe” life by following our footprints. I believe that God want us to instill His principles of Life into the next generation and He wants His principles to be the bridle that guides the pursuit of our passion. When God gives us passion, it doesn’t go away. Your passion is tied to your purpose. The reason why many of us live unfulfilling lives is because we are not operating in our God given passion. In error (but under the cover of love), parents and adults “protect” kids from their passions and the result is that most adults are bitter, unsatisfied with where they are, they have unfulfilled lives, spin around in circles throughout life and they live their lives in segments (nothing binding the segments together).

Most of us know how to make money, but we don’t have a clue about how to fill the void in our lives. We are saved but we are not satisfied and we won’t be until we are operating in what I call our Double GH…our “God Given Hustle”. Some people call it your gift or you purpose, whatever you call it…it is tied to your passion and your ultimate peace and fulfillment in life.

“For God's gifts and His call are irrevocable. (He never withdraws them when once they are given, and He does not change His mind about those to whom He gives His grace or to whom He sends His call.)” Romans 11:29 (Amplified Bible).

This was spoken about the Jews in their relationship with God, but the principle is true for us today. God has given you gifts and a calling and they are evidenced by the passion that burns in your heart. You were placed here to create, improve or to change something during your time here on Earth. In creating, improving and/or changing, you are ultimately supposed to bring Glory to the Father and you can only do that when you operate in your “God Given Hustle”.

Be Blessed,
B