Sweet spot.

You have one. It’s the place where your unique talents, gifts, experiences, and passions come together in the service and glorification of God. It’s the spot where you feel most like you—you’re alive and engaged and positively contributing to the world around you.

You don’t get as tired in your sweet spot. You don’t get as stressed out. Results come easier, and you’re happier, more effective, and more alive when you’re operating from this place.

As Max Lucado said, it’s the sweetest spot in the universe.

It takes a little effort to discover your sweet spot. It requires some internal exploration to identify all of the treasures that God has pre-packaged within you. However, it’s worth every moment of effort because once you start moving toward your sweet spot, you’ll be on the path toward an invigorating, significant, uncommon life.

Your kids have a sweet spot too. If you’re a parent, one of the wisest things you can do is to help your child identify his or her sweet spot, and begin living in it early on. Many heart-breaking endeavors come about because young people waste time exploring life outside of their God-prescribed sweet spot.

If you’re ready to get serious about living an uncommon life, there are some reflection exercises in the appendix of The Cure for the Common Life that will guide you into the identification of your sweet spot. By identifying “aha!” moments from childhood to adolescence to adulthood, and by highlighting the verbs (the actions you took that made you feel most alive), you can create a script that will startlingly identify the essence of who you were created to be.

Please avail yourselves of those exercises, and get started on the path toward an uncommon life. As Andy Dufresne said to Red at the end of the film, Shawshank Redemption, “I guess it comes down to a simple choice really. Get busy living or get busy dying.”

Let’s get busy living intentional lives that glorify God, bless the world, and bring life to our own souls.

Know you are loved!

(This officially concludes this summer’s all-church reading program)