Don't Forget Jack!

In a world where "only the best survive", where being the best isn't always good enough, and where people are only too ready to knock a "tall poppy" back down to size. It's all too easy to forget about the Jacks of the world who keep their heads down and just get on with stuff.

"Jack who?" I hear you ask.... Let me explain.

Have you noticed that, in the world today, the focus is always on being the best, being a winner, being "Top Dog". BUT, only one person can BE the best. Where does that leave everyone else?

If you are always striving to be the best, and your worth is only validated by being the best, then you are dooming yourself to a life of constant failure. There is always someone who is or will become better in some way or another. Even Usain Bolt (current 200m Olympic & World Champion runner) will one day be surpassed by someone younger and faster than himself. Does that mean his life and usefulness is over? Of course not. He will just step into a new phase of life and take on new challenges and new adventures.

But what about our Jack? (Had you forgotten about him already?)

Our Jack never was the best. He was sitting in the middle of the classroom, just getting on with life. Sam is better at maths, Johnny is better at reading, Bella is better at art, Julie is better at science. Meanwhile our Jack just gets on with it. He's not stupid. He's quite capable in fact. He's just not "the best". He is a Jack-of-all-trades. He can do just about anything he puts his mind to, with some level of success. The problem is, he doesn't think he is worth anything because he's not the best at any of it.

I realised today in church that I AM Jack. Well, to be fair, I've known for a while. I've said often that I am a "jack of all trades and master of none". I just felt called to speak out on behalf of all my fellow "Jacks" sitting in classrooms everywhere.

I thought about it earlier in the week when I donned a screwdriver to put my classroom door handle back together after it fell off in my hand, and again while I was climbing round the windows rigging up a blanket to act as a surrogate curtain so my kids could actually SEE the stuff I was showing them on the projector. But it really dawned on me fully this morning, that God created me to be a "Jack". He didn't need another Jamie to lead his worship team. He didn't need another Mark to rock out an awesome sound mix. He didn't need another Paul to play awesome Piano. He needed ME, a Jack. He needed someone to run round behind the scenes doing the little things. A bit of this and bit of that. Fixing something here or finding a guru to fix that there. He didn't need another specialist, he has plenty of them. He needed a Jack-of-all-trades to fill in the gaps.

A friend called it the "go-to-person". What an honour, to be that person. How many of our kids (How many of YOUR kids?), are Jacks-of-all-trades and don't realise the immense value they have in that role. Are we failing our Jacks by not share with them that, by being able to do lots of things to a GOOD standard, they ARE the best at something;

Jack IS THE BEST at being a JACK-OF-ALL-TRADES!

Johnny may be able to read a 300 page book in under an hour. Sam may be able to recite her times tables faster that you can blink. But can they put a door handle back together, create a curtain, fix a computer and teach a class ALL before morning tea?!! The world needs us Jacks!

Make sure the Jacks in YOUR class know their true value.

In fact, I bet half the primary school teachers in this world are actually Jacks-of-all-trades. Probably even more than half! We teach practically every subject and topic, (my favourite quote...we "pretend that we've known all our lives what we just learnt this morning.") We make resources. We play sports. We fix computers. We play music. We fix sore tummies and scrapped knees, and the list goes on............

So here's to us teachers and all our other fellow Jacks of the world!

Meanwhile..... I'm off to put up a curtain rail.

*Note: No real students were used in the making of this blog post....Just a few of the many great specialists at my church. [Hopefully they don't mind too much. :)]