HEALTHY HUSTLE by STEPHEN BREWSTER
So glad to hook you up with a special guest for this post. If you are a church creative type, this cat is likely no stranger to you (and if he is, he shouldn’t be). Happy to have Mr. Stephen Brewster at the wheel today. He’s the Creative Arts Pastor at Crosspoint Church in TN and the wields a razor-sharp blog and twitter feed stuffed full of inspirational gems for the creatives among us. When it comes to creativity, he embodies the buzzword – Hustle.
That’s exactly what I asked him to share about.
It is an “it” word these days, no doubt. I see it several times a day on my twitter feed. It’s this sort of undefined/implied concept that doesn’t boil down just simply to “work harder” – but it has that feel sometimes. Seeing the concept as often as I do, I began to ruminate on the idea of that being a dangerous line. Of course we need to bust our humps at what we’re called to do, but we also need Sabbath; we need Selah; we need to be good husbands/wives/fathers/mothers. So, to speak to this idea, I decided to call in a ringer. Glad to have Stephen share with you today what I’ve glibly called “Healthy Hustle”. Enjoy.
I am so honored for the chance to get to post today on Jeff’s blog. As a fellow Canadian I know the necessity of us sticking together. 
Jeff asked I share a little with you today about hustle and how we can hustle and still balance our lives. A very tricky task. I think first it is understanding the essence of what hustling is all about. Hustling is not necessarily working a million hours. It is more of a mindset. It is how you approach your work. Hustling is not accepting excuses or settling for the status quo. When we hustle we are committed to creating our absolute best every time and have no space for less than that level of execution. Hustle is a mindset more than a work ethic. But it is also a mind set that creates a work ethic. Being willing to Hustle means you will do whatever it takes to achieve your passions, dreams, and destiny.
When we understand that hustle is more about how we approach our work than just our work itself we can embrace the freedom of applying this mentality to all aspects of our lives. For example if I can hustle at my job I can hustle at home, with my kids, or on vacation. Usually this is where the light goes on for people. Everyone wants to hustle vacation. And you can…plan the trip, take the best pictures, create amazing memories. You refuse to let a rainy day or a sick kid keep you from having a great vacation…thats hustle.
When we understand this concept making it balance between work and home makes life a bit more manageable. We have to understand that when we signed up for ministry we signed up for the best and worst of what that brings to our lives. Ministry is not a 9-5 job. Neither is being a rockstar. If I want to be a rockstar I understand that I have to give up Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights to accomplish my dreams. Its a trade off. When we are in ministry we have to be willing to do the things necessary to accomplish our tasks…and keep balance.
Hustling for our family should come first, before we hustle for our job. Always. It almost counts as a hustlers code.
So here is to you doing your best and adjusting your approach. Here is to the hustlers…we can do this.
You can read Stephen’s blog here or follow him on Twitter here.
