Settling Into Your Niche

I learned an amazing lesson yesterday afternoon while watching an ancient T.V. show. Susan and I borrowed from the library a DVD of the first season of the classic "Dick Van Dyke Show." The first episode was filmed in January of 1961.

After watching a couple hilarious shows, Susan and I then took a look at the pilot of the program. What a surprise. Carl Reiner, the creative genius who wrote many of the scripts, was the star and the rest of the cast was completely different from those we're used to. He played the part of Rob Petrie and was relatively funny. But the show didn't seem to click. As we watched the credits roll, we noticed the date of this pilot -- 1959. It apparently took about a year and a half for the producers to cast the right characters. And be early 1961, they knew they had a winner.

What hit me was how Carl Reiner undoubtedly realized that someone else needed to play Rob Petrie. And he needed to stick with what he did best -- writing comedy. Of course, when they found Dick Van Dyke, Mary Tyler Moore and all the rest, they discovered a gold mine of talent. I would say that in looking back on this show, it was one of the most successful television comedies of its time -- perhaps ever.

There's something to learn for all of us from Reiner's experience. We may try to be something that doesn't fit us and perhaps get really frustrated. Maybe we get jealous of others who have a gift that we don't have. And may even stand in the way of letting the right person step into the right "role" -- in our families, at work and in our churches.

For three years during the mid-80's I was a young minister at a wonderful church in South Memphis -- still trying to find my niche in ministry. Robert Qualls, the preacher there who was enormously gifted and deeply loved by that church, insisted that I preach some on Sunday nights. I tried it several times, but it never seemed to fit me. And it bothered me since I felt that preaching was such a powerful role in the church.

It would take years for me to eventually find peace in carrying out the ministry that God had equipped me for -- pastoral work with people, writing, and exhortation. If I had settled into that role earlier in life I think I would have been more effective than trying to be something that just didn't fit my gifts and talents.

I've found through my experiences and in observing that of others that when we are content with the gifts God has given us, work with all our heart in that particular niche and appreciate how He uses others in roles that might be more visible, we have a lot more peace in our soul and with one another.

It's so interesting how this enormously successful television writer could teach us such lessons about life.

Jim