Good Enough or Barely Adequate

"The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride." Ecclesiastes 7:8

You may have learned this same wisdom through idioms like "Anything worth doing is worth doing well", or maybe even reading workplace signage like "Safety is no accident!" In this day and age; however, it seem everyone hurries about trying to get too many things done in too little time, measuring their accomplishments by the number of items checked on their To Do list. Corners get cut. Steps get skipped. Things get done, but are often a far cry from being done well...much less correctly.

I feel like we are living in an age of "Good Enough" and am struggling with how our under use of God given abilities glorifies Him. I was raised with a different set of values that "Good Enough Isn't!" At an earlier age when I was in the Cub Scouts, their motto was always "Do your best" not finish first or be done. In high school my favorite English teacher was hated by the majority of my peers because he didn't accept anything but your absolute best work. On the board behind his podium was a big sign with word "Mediocrity" circled in red and a slash running through it. If you look up mediocre, you'll find it means barely adequate.

So I pose the question, who are we trying to impress? Ourselves? Family? Friends and neighbors? How about the person you didn't even notice because you were too busy getting things done?

Doesn’t God deserve more than even our best? So why do we continually squander His gifts and misuse His resources by giving anything less?

As Paul once wrote, "I am writing this not to shame you but to warn you..." because the solution is simple. Stand firm, avoid the temptation of haste and give only your best to God.

Giving my all,
Alan

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