Grace Over Hustle

Alright, I’m just going to put this out there: I am NOT a hustler!

At. All.

At the time that I started writing this post, the hashtag “#Hustle” had been used about six and a half million times on Instagram. I’m sure you’ve seen that nowadays nearly every popular business website or blog has articles or lists on “How to Start a Side Hustle” or “The Top 15 Side Hustles to Start Today”. Keep searching the internet and you’ll find even more articles, lists or social media inspiration on improving your “grind” or how to “hustle hard”.

Yeah...I’m just not buying it.

Somehow, we became convinced that our hustling is the way to get things done. I’ve personally never bought into the hustle mentality because there’s something about it that seems tiring to me, there’s something that seems grossly unrealistic to me.

The biggest problem that I have with the way we’ve promoted hustling is that it completely relegates the importance of having the grace of God in our lives. When I consider everything I’ve ever seen that is touted as hustling, it means taking on everything yourself—kick down the door, work harder, make people recognize you, work longer, tear down the wall, force things to be bigger, make things open up for you. And if you aren’t seeing results after all of that, then, it’s because you’re not grinding hard enough; you’re not a real hustler.

My goodness, that seems exhausting!

If I’m doing ALL of that, where exactly is God’s hand? What happened to God opening doors for me? What happened to God making my name great?

Now, I’m in full understanding that we have a responsibility to work in partnership with God to fulfill purpose, I’m very clear on that. But we are in no way the sole source of our strength, the sole source of our abilities, the sole source of our intellect, the sole source of our creativity.

The other issue that I have with the hustle mentality is that it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution for progress. It would seem to me that if hustling was the be-all, end-all to success then we could all hustle the same way, at the same rate and all achieve the same results; and yet, hustling doesn’t work that way. Why? Because I’m not you, you’re not me. Our personalities are different. Our purposes are different. Our experiences are different. Our skills are different. Our home lives are different. Our academic backgrounds are different…

Hustling is insufficient because there’s no accounting for our individuality. Would an introvert hustle the same way an extrovert does? Would an unmarried, full-time student hustle the same way a stay-at-home mom of three does? Absolutely not!

My final issue with hustling is that it often forces comparison and makes us want to compete with people we may never even get to know. I’ve worked with young women who have had bouts of depression and low self-esteem because they watched so and so “grind her way to the top” and they can’t figure out why what they’re doing isn’t working. “I’m trying to do the same thing. I’m hustling hard. Why can’t I have the same impact on social media? Why are my numbers so low? Why isn’t my blog readership growing? Why can’t I sell products like she can? Why am I not making as much money as this person says they have made? Why isn’t my business growing? How is it that I’ve been doing this longer and she just got started and has already surpassed me?”

So, how do we apply grace over hustle?

Know

The first thing we need to do is know that God’s grace is available for us. We need to also know that His grace is much more than just unmerited favor; it’s the measure of diversified gifts (1 Peter 4:10), capability and ability (Eph. 4:7) that are distributed to us in various ways according to what we need to accomplish. Until we know this, we will always have to rely on our own hustle and grind to get things done.

His grace may afford me different things that it does for you, and vice versa, but it’s in full supply and constantly available on the basis of what each of us has to do in this life!

Appreciate + Congratulate

When we focus on the hustle, we also focus on what other people are doing that we are not doing, we focus on what other people are accomplishing that we are not accomplishing and it puts us in position to be envious, jealous, ungrateful, competitive inspectors of other people’s lives, often rejoicing when we see them fail—that’s not where God wants us to be!

Instead of comparing and competing, I want you to practice appreciating the milestones that you achieve toward your own goals and congratulate yourself along the way. Be thankful that you are making progress. Be thankful for the pitfalls you avoided. Be thankful for the lessons you are learning. Continue to push yourself to make more progress and remember that God’s grace will equip you to go further. You can do so much more when you find yourself being habitually grateful!

Evaluate

It’s important to set measurable goals so that you can track your progress. By evaluating your progress (and being thankful along the way), editing your goals as you achieve them and focusing on your own finish line, you’ll be better able to see where you need more strength, where you may need a partner or collaborator, where you need to exert your abilities, when you need to push a little harder, when it’s ok to take a break and rest, when you need to pray, when you need to stand still and wait, when you may need to put down some things He never told you to pick up in the first place…

In my own life, when I started evaluating my goals, my processes and my motives, that’s where I really began to see the importance of grace over hustle.

God’s grace will not only equip you to do things, but, will also aid you in measuring the success of the things you’re working on. This includes knowing the areas that He has not given you grace for. Not every good idea is a “God idea”, so we have to be sure that we’re seeking God daily to understand His plan and the route He wants/expects us to take. When we operate in places that He never called us to, we HAVE to hustle in order to make it work.

Repeat

Remember, that His grace (unmerited favor, capability and abilities) are sufficient for what we need in order to get things done in this life. Therefore, the process of seeking grace over hustle is ongoing.

Listen: greater is He that is in you than the you that you are by yourself! God’s grace will take you places that your hustle can’t even reach. My prayer for you today is that you'll learn more about the areas that He has graced you, that you will be grateful for your own journey and that you will measure your successes according to what God has planned for your own life, not someone else's!

Hugs + Love

#LifeChoices #GraceOverHustle