Amateurs

An amateur is good, just not good enough to be paid yet. One of these days she’ll be good enough to be paid, and she will be a professional. We are right to use the word “amateur” in that way. Current usage dictates meaning. Maybe we can understand the positive side of “amateur” when we consider the Latin word that is root to our English word. Amator means “lover.” An amateur loves his past-time, role, hobby, or sport so much that he doesn’t need pay to play.

Amateur husbands, preachers, parents, deacons, wives, elders, Bible school teachers, friends, servants, administrators, assistants, and leaders sound pretty good in that context, don’t they? I can’t think of any of those “jobs” in which I haven’t known a number of people who have and will do them without pay because they love them.

What about you? You fill some of those roles. Do you allow your love for people to fill you up so that the “jobs” you do for them, you would do as an amateur – as if there were no payoff? Do your kids know that you are an amateur by the way you handle your role as a parent? Can the people that you do “nice” things for know that they are dealing with an amateur, or would they think they are dealing with a professional with some obligation to be nice? From this perspective, an amateur’s skill will likely excel that of the professional. Join the amateur ranks. That’s Life at Work!