Don't Fix a Weakness at the Expense of a Strength

So if you haven't figured it out by now I am a golfer, and like to use golf analogies to explain how what God is teaching me.  If you haven't been living under a rock for the last week then you know it was Masters week and thus God obviously spoke to me this week.  So enjoy!I was listening to pre-tournament interviews with  Rory McIlroy who is the #1 golfer in the world.  Everyone likes to compare him to Tiger Woods who used to hold that title.  So they always ask Rory questions about how he plans to do things compared to how Tiger did/does them.Now, incase you didn't know, Tiger was (and continues to be) a perfectionist.  He focuses on every aspect of his golf game and tries to fix any weakness he has. I can appreciate his desire to have no weaknesses, but in this pursuit of perfection he is now no longer the #1 golfer in the world.Rory said something that really stuck out to me in one of these interviews.  When they asked him if he was working on fixing any of his weaknesses in his swing, he said, "I will not focus my time on fixing a weakness at the expense of my greatest strength."In other words, if he is a really good putter, but then he stops practicing putting to focus on his chipping, then his putting will obviously not be as good anymore.Lets use a couple other non-golf analogies...

• Working Out: If you are strongest in your legs, but decide you want to be stronger in your arms, you can't just stop working out your legs to make your arms stronger, because then your legs won't be strong anymore. Its a nasty cycle.
• Education: If you are really good at Math, but decide that you are just going to stop using math and focus your efforts on writing, then your math skills will begin to diminish.

So what does that mean.  It means that God gave us specific strengths that each of us should utilize.  The beauty of this earth though is that God gave different people different strengths so we could help each other and rely on one-another.  If we all tried to fix our weaknesses instead of leaning on someone who's strength is our weakness then no one would have any strengths anymore.Now don't hear me wrong, you should definitely improve yourself and make efforts to learn new things.  But understand what your strengths are and don't allow those efforts to be at the expense of your strength.But as much as I can say it the Word of God says it better...1 Corinthians 12:12-27There is one body, but it has many parts. But all its many parts make up one body. It is the same with Christ. We were all baptized by one Holy Spirit. And so we are formed into one body. It didn’t matter whether we were Jews or Gentiles, slaves or free people. We were all given the same Spirit to drink. So the body is not made up of just one part. It has many parts.Suppose the foot says, “I am not a hand. So I don’t belong to the body.” By saying this, it cannot stop being part of the body. And suppose the ear says, “I am not an eye. So I don’t belong to the body.” By saying this, it cannot stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, how could it hear? If the whole body were an ear, how could it smell? God has placed each part in the body just as he wanted it to be. If all the parts were the same, how could there be a body? As it is, there are many parts. But there is only one body.The eye can’t say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” The head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” In fact, it is just the opposite. The parts of the body that seem to be weaker are the ones we can’t do without. The parts that we think are less important we treat with special honor. The private parts aren’t shown. But they are treated with special care. The parts that can be shown don’t need special care. But God has put together all the parts of the body. And he has given more honor to the parts that didn’t have any. In that way, the parts of the body will not take sides. All of them will take care of one another. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it. If one part is honored, every part shares in its joy.You are the body of Christ. Each one of you is a part of it.