Just Do It.

May he give you the desire of your heart 

       and make all your plans succeed.

We will shout for joy when you are victorious
       and will lift up our banners in the name of our God.
       May the LORD grant all your requests. – Psalms 20:4

Today’s Reading: Psalms 20-22; Acts 21: 1-17

My buddies and I were having a back and forth email conversation the other day and something interesting came up.

The homie Kieran sent a link to a new song by a local Los Angeles R&B artist. After listening to it his first impression was hey, am I trippin or can I do that?

I responded by saying, yes you can man, you can sing. All you gotta do is do it.

Then my other friend Larry cosigned with the universal truth here. He said that this is what life is all about. Life is about doing things. We either do things or we don’t and the people who just decide to do things are the folk who make the big impacts.

And then of course I come across the passage above.

I really do think that success boils down to just doing something. Sure one must have some degree of talent but, on the real, how much does talent really matter? You might be a natural genius at something but that doesn’t mean that you will be able to use that talent in such a way that makes others want to experience it.

It takes hard work and planning to hone our individual skills. They must be refined in the crucible of practice before they will shine bright enough for the whole world to see.

If you try and try at something and it still is not working out then you might need to do a reality check. Is this really what you are supposed to be doing with your life at this very moment? Are you doing it well? Is your product something that you would pay your hard earned money for if you didn’t know the person who created it? Do you love exercising your talents in this particular way so much that you are willing to put in the years of grunt work necessary to become a professional without being paid for it?

Any answer other than “yes” to these questions might suggest that a new endeavor is in order.

But honestly, I think these cases are the exception rather than the rule. I think that most of us really know what we want to do but are afraid to do it. We fear rejection. We fear failure. No one likes to be told no.

But if we can muster up the courage and strength to keep going, keep getting better, keep refining the skills that God has given us; then one day the fruits of all this labor will come.

Just do it. And keep on doing it.