the freedom to try

I recently ordered Chris Baty's No Plot? No Problem! (He's the creator of National Novel Writing Month.)  I absolutely loved the opening:

The era, in retrospect, was very kind to dumb ideas...In a more grounded age, my novel in a month concept would have been reality checked right out of existence...We were in our mid-twenties, and we had no idea what we were doing. But we knew we loved books. And so we set out to write them.

Later on in the book he addresses the very reason why the month-long, do or die, mentality seems to work for writing the first draft of a novel. And I found the following paragraph quite thought-provoking:

In the workplace, the emphasis on professionalism makes great sense. No one wants to have his or her cerebellum doctored by a dilettante brain surgeon. But the the emphasis on mastery has certain unseen psychological ramifications on the rest of our lives. You'd think, for instance, that this workday obsession with competence would make our weekends a refuge for floundering forays into uncharted territories. But what do we do when we have free time? The tried and true activities we've already perfected.

Sometimes I think those of us who grew up in evangelical households had the Biblical emphasis of "Whatever your do, do it with all your might." and "Whatever you do, even eating or drinking, do it all to God's glory." driven into our psyche to an extreme. We are so afraid of giving something second-best to God that we often fail to try new things (as if our Creator wouldn't love our whole-hearted attempts).

I used to marvel at my older sister, who was never afraid of anything. Sometimes it aggravated me because she would tackle things she had absolutely no experience in. Many times she had good degrees of success. Sometimes she shrugged and chalked it up as a learning experience. But she NEVER quit trying new things. The older I get, I find myself adopting a few of her mindsets. I laugh when people say I'm talented. I'm not talented. I'm just stupid enough to keep trying new things. Some of them I laugh and leave behind. Others I pursue with a passion.

I've not totally mastered the concept that the learning process (trying things) is not irreverent, but I'm getting there. The emphasis is doing MY best, NOT being the best, and recognizing God gets the glory for all of it. And that is freeing, indeed!