Specialize in Generality

I was talking with my wife and I came to a conclusion about something: we have become too specialized.

I work in church and have for my entire adult life, and without fail one of the major problems in any congregation I've been in is the phenomenon that 20% of the people do %80 of the work. The few lay members who 'get it' dedicate themselves and are pulled in so many different ministries that they quickly become burnt out from overwork.

Set that nugget aside and take a moment to think about our current political climate. Everyone was ecstatic about Obama, right? We were so excited about change and hope and fixing everything and we voted for him. He won handily and then... what?

We're still in trouble. We're still going down the tubes and we're still waiting for everything to be fixed. Maybe we should have elected the other guy?

I don't think so. If you look at Obama's campaign speeches, he always used "we" language, not "I". We have a lot of work to do. Our challenges are great. He still talks that way. He's not afraid to take the lead and be responsible, but the thought that one person (even the President) can change an entire nation in the span of 3 months is absurd.

Here's the real issue. %80 of the people sit on their thumbs and wait. They sit back calling fouls and never play the game. It happens in churches, but its happening everywhere. People recognize the problem and want change, but they want someone else to do it for them.

So, is it laziness that causes this? Perhaps, but I think it may be a little less indicting. I think it has to do with the way our society is structured. We're too specialized. 100 years ago, if you needed clothes altered, you did it yourself. Someone else could do it better, for certain, but you could do it yourself and be done with it. People knew a little bit in a wide manner of areas.

Things have changed. If something goes wrong in my house, I have to call someone. If you want a job, you have to educate yourself in that particular field. Children are even specializing in one sport rather than playing many. If little Jimmy focuses just on football, then he'll be a much better football player and hopefully get scholarships so he can go to law school and specialize in digital white collar criminal law. Whereas if he plays baseball, football, and soccer, he'll never be good enough to get scholarships in all of them.

We're waiting around for the particular person whose job it is to do whatever incredibly specific task we have before us. So maybe the answer is to stop specializing. Don't try to learn everything about one specific field. Learn a little from a wide variety.

Maybe then we would have people who solved their own problems because they understand that I, me, am the master of my world. If something in my world goes wrong, I will take it upon myself to fix it.