The Next Big Thing

I’m a big believer that everyone has something they are uniquely qualified to do.  Sometimes it’s pretty obvious.  Other times it becomes noticeable as more time and experiences occur.  What you are uniquely qualified to do might be part of your career or it might just be a constant part of your personality woven through many parts of your life.

I was poking around looking for “my next big thing” the other day.  A “big thing” for me is usually some kind of running or cycling event.  As I was rolling ideas through my mind nothing was really speaking to me.  For several decades there was always, always, always was a next big thing.  It’s how I went from running to cycling to duathlon to triathlon to a bit of mountain biking.  There was a national championship, a world championship, and countless amazing races in many states and countries.  But now…nothing is really standing out.  But that’s ok! 

There is one thing that I’ve been asked to do however.  I’ve been asked to run alongside friends going after their “next big thing”.  It seems as though a few friends want to tackle something long, difficult, and arduous and my name has come up in conversation as part of the plan to achieve their goal.  Their big thing is going to be my big thing.

Now I may be qualified because of the races I’ve done but that doesn’t mean I would be successful in translating that into their race.  It is their race after all.  But one thing is constant in endurance sports; there is always a time that you doubt and a time where things are painful.  I’ve experienced that and perhaps guiding someone else through that is a delicate balance of pushing and grace.

Saying “yes” to the next big thing is exciting but it’s also signing up for an eventual hardship.  You know it’s going to be awesome to pursue a goal and crossing that finish line is going to be great but sometimes we forget that there is going to be some serious times of discomfort.  I know this to be true, not just with a running race but for life.  How many times have we signed up expecting high personal satisfaction immediately ahead only to have that get stomped on, tossed aside, and face a reality that maybe things are going to go differently than we expected?

I remember walking away from a career 6 years ago thinking my next big thing was right around the corner.  I needed freedom and needed to hit the reset button.  I was confident that I would just make a slight redirection into something new that would be financially stable, would light me up, and would still give me a chance to be more available for my family.  Silly me thought that the next big thing would be in two short weeks!  What I didn’t expect was the deep dive into making a new Josh was going to take years and it wasn’t going to just scratch the surface; it was going to go deep!  I had signed up for the next big thing out of obedience but forgot the all-too-common realization from endurance sports;  there will be moments of unbelief and of discomfort!

Signing up for that next big thing has never been a mistake but…wow, it sure has been a wild ride.  You see, when you sign up for the next big thing you might think that you are going to conquer that thing without changing yourself.  But I’m very confident that if you sign up for a big thing, that gives God the green light to work ON YOU in a big way, whether you know it or not!

I can’t tell you everything I’ve experienced but I can say that through it all God has been a source of comfort.  Not a source of solving things in my timing or withholding “bad” things from happening.  There are trials and tribulations and often times I just say, “I don’t know”.  But He is, and has been, a source of comfort because I trust Him.  I can’t stop living and I can’t stop trusting.  To not do one of those things is a challenge but truly, what other option is there?  You have to keep moving in small chunks in those “next big things”.

So I have to chuckle a little bit when a friend says they want to do an ultra-distance running event.  Not because I don’t think they can do it…I know they can physically!  But signing up is an awesome responsibility in saying “I’m willing to go to a place and learn more about myself than I ever thought possible.  I’m willing to go to the spot of surrender and lean on God as my Source and Comforter”.  At least that’s how I see it.  It’s putting yourself out there for an eventual crisis of belief.  Not everyone wants to go there.

So what are you uniquely qualified to do in this world?  Did you ever think the “bad times” would be a source to help others in their “bad times”?  Maybe you are uniquely qualified not by your perceived successes but by God’s comfort in the tough times.  Your next big thing could be offering comfort to the uncomfortable…whether they are running or not!

2 Corinthians 1:3-  “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”