Cure for the Common Life: Living in Your Sweet Spot (Hardback)

Chapter 1 | Your Sweet Spot

“Sweet spot.” Golfers understand the term. So do tennis players. Ever swung a baseball bat or paddled a Ping-Pong ball? If so, you know the oh-so-nice feel of the sweet spot. Connect with these prime inches of real estateand kapow! The collective technologies of the universe afterburn the ball into orbit, leaving you Frisbee eyed and strutting. Your arm doesn’t tingle, and the ball doesn’t ricochet. Your boyfriend remembers birthdays, the tax refund comes early, and the flight attendant bumps you up to first class.

Life in the sweet spot rolls like the downhill side of a downwind bike ride. But you don’t have to swing a bat or a club to know this. What engineers give sports equipment, God gave you. A zone, a region, a life precinct in which you were made to dwell. He tailored the curves of your life to fit an empty space in his jigsaw puzzle. And life makes sweet sense when you find your spot. But how do you? Where do you go? What pills do you order, class do you take, or infomercial do you watch? None of the above. Simply quarry . . . your uniqueness.

Da Vinci painted one Mona Lisa. Beethoven composed one Fifth Symphony. And God made one version of you. He custom designed you for a one-of-a-kind assignment. Mine like a gold digger the unique-to-you nuggets from your life.

When I was six years old, my father built us a house. Architectural Digest didn’t notice, but my mom sure did. Dad constructed it, board by board, every day after work. My youth didn’t deter him from giving me a job. He tied an empty nail apron around my waist, placed a magnet in my hands, and sent me on daily patrols around the building site, carrying my magnet only inches off the ground.

One look at my tools and you could guess my job. Stray-nail collector. One look at yours and the same can be said. Brick by brick, life by life, God is creating a kingdom, a “spiritual house” (1 Pet. 2:5 CEV). He entrusted you with a key task in the project. Examine your tools and discover it. Your ability unveils your destiny. “If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 4:11). When God gives an assignment, he also gives the skill. Study your skills, then, to reveal your assignment.

Look at you. Your uncanny ease with numbers. Your quenchless curiosity about chemistry. Others stare at blueprints and yawn; you read them and drool. “I was made to do this,” you say.

Heed that inner music. No one else hears it the way you do. At this very moment in another section of the church building in which I write, little kids explore their tools. Preschool classrooms may sound like a cacophony to you and me, but God hears a symphony.

A five-year-old sits at a crayon-strewn table. He seldom talks. Classmates have long since set aside their papers, but he ponders his. The colors compel him. He marvels at the gallery of kelly green and navy blue and royal purple. Masterpiece in hand, he’ll race to Mom and Dad, eager to show them his kindergarten Picasso.

His sister, however, forgets her drawing. She won’t consume the home commute with tales of painted pictures. She’ll tell tales of tales. “The teacher told us a new story today!” And the girl will need no prodding to repeat it.

Another boy cares less about the story and the drawings and more about the other kids. He spends the day wearing a “Hey, listen to me!” expression, lingering at the front of the class, testing the patience of the teacher. He relishes attention, evokes reactions. His theme seems to be “Do it this way. Come with me. Let’s try this.”

Meaningless activities at an insignificant age? Or subtle hints of hidden strengths? I opt for the latter. The quiet boy with the color fascination may someday brighten city walls with murals. His sister may pen a screenplay or teach literature to curious coeds. And the kid who recruits followers today might eventually do the same on behalf of a product, the poor, or even his church.

What about you? Our Maker gives assignments to people, “to each according to each one’s unique ability” (Matt. 25:15). As he calls, he equips. Look back over your life. What have you consistently done well? What have you loved to do? Stand at the intersection of your affections and successes and find your uniqueness. You have one. A divine spark. An uncommon call to an uncommon life. “The Spirit has given each of us a special way of serving others” (1 Cor. 12:7 CEV). So much for the excuse “I don’t have anything to offer.” Did the apostle Paul say, “The Spirit has given some of us . . .”? Or, “The Spirit has given a few of us . . .”? No. “The Spirit has given each of us a special way of serving others.” Enough of this self-deprecating “I can’t do anything.”

And enough of its arrogant opposite: “I have to do everything.” No, you don’t! You’re not God’s solution to society, but a solution in society. Imitate Paul, who said, “Our goal is to stay within the boundaries of God’s plan for us” (2 Cor. 10:13 NLT). Clarify your contribution. Don’t worry about skills you don’t have. Don’t covet strengths others do have. Just extract your uniqueness. “Kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you” (2 Tim. 1:6 NASB). And do so to . . . make a big deal out of God. “Everything comes from God alone. Everything lives by his power, and everything is for his glory” (Rom. 11:36 TLB). The breath you just took? God gave that. The blood that just pulsed through your heart? Credit God. The light by which you read and the brain with which you process? He gave both. Everything comes from him . . . and exists for him. We exist to exhibit God, to display his glory. We serve as canvases for his brush stroke, papers for his pen, soil for his seeds, glimpses of his image.

Texas A&M’s T-shirted football fans model our role. In the aftermath of September 11, many Americans sought an opportunity to demonstrate patriotism and solidarity. Five students set the pace. They designated the next home football game as Red, White, and Blue Out and sold T-shirts to each of the seventy thousand fans. Kyle Field morphed into a human flag as those seated in the third deck wore red, the second deck wore white, and the lower deck wore blue. Newspapers across America splashed the picture on front pages.

Newsworthy indeed! How often do thousands of people billboard a singular, powerful message? God fashioned us to do so for him. “Each person is given something to do that shows who God is” (1 Cor. 12:7 MSG). He distributes, not shirts, but strengths. He sends people, not to bleacher seats, but to life assignments: “Go to your place. Dispatch your abilities, and unfurl my goodness.”

Most refuse. Few cooperate. We accept the present, but neglect its purpose. We accept the gift, thank you, but ignore the Giver and promote self. Why, some of us have been known to parade up and down the aisles, shouting, “Hey, look at me!” Need an explanation for the anarchy in the world? You just read it. When you center-stage your gifts and I pump my image and no one gives a lick about honoring God, dare we expect anything short of chaos? God endows us with gifts so we can make him known. Period. God endues the Olympian with speed, the salesman with savvy, the surgeon with skill. Why? For gold medals, closed sales, or healed bodies? Only partially. The big answer is to make a big to-do out of God. Brandish him. Herald him. “God has given gifts to each of you from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Manage them well. . . . Then God will be given glory” (1 Pet. 4:10–11 NLT).

Live so that “he’ll get all the credit as the One mighty in everything—encores to the end of time. Oh, yes!” (1 Pet. 4:11 MSG). Exhibit God with your uniqueness. When you magnify your Maker with your strengths, when your contribution enriches God’s reputation, your days grow suddenly sweet. And to really dulcify your world, use your uniqueness to make a big deal about God . . . every day of your life. Heaven’s calendar has seven Sundays a week. God sanctifies each day. He conducts holy business at all hours and in all places. He uncommons the common by turning kitchen sinks into shrines, cafés into convents, and nine-to-five workdays into spiritual adventures. Workdays? Yes, workdays. He ordained your work as something good. Before he gave Adam a wife or a child, even before he gave Adam britches, God gave Adam a job. “Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it” (Gen. 2:15 NASB). Innocence, not indolence, characterized the first family.

God views work worthy of its own engraved commandment: “You shall work six days, but on the seventh day you shall rest” (Exod. 34:21 NASB). We like the second half of that verse. But emphasis on the day of rest might cause us to miss the command to work: “You shall work six days.” Whether you work at home or in the marketplace, your work matters to God. And your work matters to society. We need you! Cities need plumbers. Nations need soldiers. Stoplights break. Bones break. We need people to repair the first and set the second. Someone has to raise kids, raise cane, and manage the kids who raise Cain.

Whether you log on or lace up for the day, you imitate God. Jehovah himself worked for the first six days of creation. Jesus said, “My Father never stops working, and so I keep working, too” (John 5:17 NCV). Your career consumes half of your lifetime. Shouldn’t it broadcast God? Don’t those forty to sixty hours a week belong to him as well?

The Bible never promotes workaholism or an addiction to employment as pain medication. But God unilaterally calls all the physically able to till the gardens he gives. God honors work. So honor God in your work. “There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and tell himself that his labor is good” (Eccles. 2:24 NASB). I just heard a groan. “But, Max,” someone objects, “my work is simply that—work! It pays my bills, but numbs my soul.” (You’re only a few pages from some help.)

“Job satisfaction? How about job survival? How do I survive a job misfit?” (I have some ideas.) “I have no clue how to find my skill.” (By the end of the book you will.) “Honor God? After the mess I’ve made of my life?” (Don’t miss the chapter on mercy.) For now, here is the big idea: Use your uniqueness (what you do) to make a big deal out of God (why you do it)every day of your life (where you do it).

At the convergence of all three, you’ll find the cure for the common life: your sweet spot. Sweet spot. You have one, you know. Your life has a plot; your years have a theme. You can do something in a manner that no one else can. And when you find it and do it, another sweet spot is discovered. Let’s find yours.

About Max

With more than 39 million books sold worldwide, Max Lucado has touched millions with his signature storytelling writing style. Awards and accolades follow Max with each book he writes. Max is the first author to win the Gold Medallion Christian Book of the Year three times—1999 for Just Like Jesus, 1997 for In the Grip of Grace and 1995 for When God Whispers Your Name.

In 1994, he became the only author to have 11 of his twelve books in print simultaneously appear on paperback, hardcover and children's CBA bestseller lists. Lucado set a new industry record by concurrently placing nine different Word Publishing titles on the CBA Hardcover Bestseller List in both March and April 1997. Max Lucado is a fixture on the national bestseller lists – a Max Lucado title has appeared on the CBA hardcover bestseller list every month for the past eight years. He has appeared on the Publishers Weekly, USA Today and New York Times bestseller lists. His newest book, Come Thirsty, was released in October 2004, and Next Door Savior recently won a Gold Medallion award in the Inspirational category.

In addition to his nonfiction books, Lucado has authored several award-winning children's titles including , Just In Case You Ever Wonder, The Crippled Lamb, Alabaster's Song. and the award-winning You Are Special. His most recent effort based on You Are Special is entitled, Punchinello and His Most Marvelous Gift. Max is also the author of Hermie: A Common Caterpillar, as well as a number of subsequent works based on Hermie. He also served as the general editor for the best-selling Devotional Bible and God's Inspirational Promise Book.

Max serves as the pulpit minister of the Oak Hills Church in San Antonio, Texas. But he says his greatest accomplishment is finding a one-in-a-million wife in Denalyn and having three unbelievable daughters: Jenna, Andrea, and Sara.

God gave you uniqueness, a talent, a skill, one that is yours alone to use in honoring Him. Cure for the Common Life can help you find that uniqueness, the “sweet spot” that puts it all into perspective, and show you how to live it everyday so that you aren’t just existing in God’s creation but thriving in His plan.
Dr. Phil McGraw, #1 New York Times bestselling author and host of the ”Dr. Phil show”

We all have unique gifts that can be used for God’s purposes. Max Lucado’s gift is to apply spiritual teachings to our everyday lives, as he has done with Cure for the Common Life. Discovering God’s unique plan for our lives is both humbling and inspiring: humbling because though we are but a drop in the ocean, the Creator of the universe has a plan for our individual lives; and inspiring as that plan becomes revealed and our unique talents and attributes get put to work in carrying it out. In understanding the principles Max espouses, you will be inspired to live anything but the common life.
Rick Perry, Governor of Texas

Max Lucado’s Cure for the Common Life provides a blueprint for staying above the malaise of quiet, desperate living. With lyrical language, he gives valuable insights for unpacking your uniqueness to glorify God in your eternal vocation. Reading this book will produce in many a ‘thank God it’s Monday’ attitude.
Barry C. Black, Chaplain of the U .S. Senate

Max Lucado has done it again! This book is a jewel. I say that because he hits the nail on the head when he reveals in chapter after chapter that people cannot be anything they want to be but they can be everything God wants them to be. Read, discover, and rejoice in your sweet spot out of which you are intended to live.
Millard Fuller, Founder, Habitat for Humanity and The Fuller Center for Housing

What Jonas Salk did for polio, Max Lucado has done for aimlessness. If you’re one of the afflicted masses who feels like you’re sliding through life instead of soaring as God intended you, read this book fast! Cure for the Common Life is much more than a title--I predict it may be the vaccine that gives life purpose and hope to a whole generation.
Gene Appel, Teaching Pastor, Willow Creek Community Church, television commentator

I’m convinced that every single one of us has a “spiritual DNA” that determines our destiny in this life. Max Lucado calls it our “sweet spot.” And by reading this terrific new book, you will find yours. It’s the right book to read in Halftime or anytime.
Bob Buford, Best-selling author of Halftime and Finishing Well

Other than accepting Christ as Savior, there is no more important discovery for Christians than understanding how God uniquely equips them to work and serve. We are all individually “wired” by God “to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Cure for the Common Life may be the most important book you will ever read if it helps you understand how God equipped you perfectly for service in His kingdom.
Richard E. Stearns, President, World Vision U.S.

Max Lucado has done it again! He has taken simple truths and made them available to all of us. In Cure for the Common Life he shows us how to identify and explore our uniqueness, motivates us to put our strengths to work and to live in our sweet spot for the rest of our life.
Ken Blanchard, Co-author of The One-Minute Manager® and The Secret

Every time I get a chance to hear Max Lucado speak, my life is blessed. Everyone who reads this book will know that they are special in the eyes of God and a very important part of His plan.
CeCe Winans

Max Lucado, in lyric prose and with heart penetrating stories, reminds us that we are made in the image of God. Reading life backwards has never been so much fun—or so revealing.
Laurie Beth Jones, Author of Jesus, CEO and Jesus, Life Coach

Max Lucado has the unusual gift of being able to take God’s Word, filter it through human experiences and human circumstances and have it emerge unscathed and undiluted. The person through whom it passes is transformed by the renewing of his or her mind and heart. In Cure for the Common Life Max and God do it again by showing us how we don’t have to be victims of circumstances, but live in a sweeter spot.
Cal Thomas, Syndicated Columnist and Host, “After Hours” on Fox News Channel

Max Lucado’s Cure for the Common Life leaves you feeling energized, curious to discover your own God-given “sweet spot.” He encourages you to discover your unique gifts and the specific plan that God has given each of us.
Dr. Gary Smalley, Author, founder of Smalley Relationship Center

In these pages you will leave the common life in the dust. You will learn that each person was designed as a one-of-a-kind to achieve one certain purpose. You begin to experience the fact that God has embedded in your soul the power and passion to fulfill your purpose. It is a profound message for those who long for a unity of their belief and their life in this world.
Art Miller, Founder of People Management International, Inc. and author of The Power of Uniqueness

To maximize life’s potential personally, professionally, and spiritually, you must know the zone in which you are the happiest and most productive. Most people never reach that utopian state because they do not know how to get there. In this book, Max Lucado shows us how to achieve that goal, which he refers to as the “sweet spot.” I am convinced that by following the detailed guidelines so beautifully written in this book, the reader will be able to find that sweet spot and add new meaning and purpose to life.
Kenneth H. Cooper, M.D., M.P.H.

I recommend this book if you fall into any of these categories: you’re working, parenting, calling the shots, serving, wondering, graduating, longing, wondering, breathing. Your focus will be refined. Your battery will be recharged.
Ernie Johnson, Jr., Sportscaster-TNT

Destroying the myth that we can be anything we want to be, and discovering that God has a special destiny for each of us, is both inspirational and freeing. It made me look at life’s journey in a brand new way.
Alan Colmes

The message of this book could change your life forever. What if you dared to believe that the God of the universe has made you so unique that without your passionate participation in this life, we would all feel the loss? God waits for us to sing his love song in our own distinct voice.
Shiela Walsh, Women of Faith speaker and Author of I’m Not Wonder Woman but God Made Me Wonderful

Max has once again “Max-i-mized” my understanding with his “sweet-spot” style, showing how much better we can be when we’re being what God created us to be.
Pastor Bob Coy, Calvary Chapel, Fort Lauderdale

This is a breakthrough book for everyone who wants God’s best for their life!
Lee Strobel, author, The Case for Christ and God’s Outrageous Claims

You don’t have to read an entire book to write an endorsement for it--unless of course you can’t put it down! Such is the case with Cure for the Common Life. If your life has become numbingly mundane and you’ve forgotten that God has a plan for your life then I suggest you block out a few hours to be reminded of your uniqueness.
Dave Stone, Southeast Christian Church

I’m so glad for Max Lucado’s insightful call for us to live and work as we are intrinsically designed by God.
Richard J. Foster, author, Celebration of Discipline