First Blog

We hear the exhortations all the time, “Do something and whatever it is do it excellently!”; “You have one life so don’t waste it; one chance to make a difference so live excellently!”; “Be great!”; “Become the best you can be!”; “Quality over quantity”; and all the rest.

These exhortations are true. But what do you do when you feel your work isn’t excellent enough? How should one view the quality of their work? Is true excellence only a wishful dream or is it available to be had now?

Excellent and Not Excellent

There is something to be said about how excellence is measured. Take a child’s drawing. Naturally, “excellent work of art” isn’t the phrase to come to mind. Compare the drawing to an oil painting by Claude Monet and it will pale in comparison. You won’t find it hung in an art gallery and you’d be surprised to see it bought for any money at all.

And yet, change the standard that it is compared to and one’s consideration of it can change quite quickly. You see, what if the child’s work was judged not against the standard of a Monet painting but against a toddler’s scribble? All at once, the child’s drawing becomes the excellent one. What you find then is that it is a difficult thing to understand what is truly excellent without a firm measure. Without it, the exact same drawing by the child can appear to be both excellent and not excellent.

The Measure of Excellence

But it’s not very helpful just to know that something can appear to be both excellent and not excellent. What is it really? How does one go about figuring out what is truly and actually excellent?

Well, if one wanted to measure something to see if it was truly straight, say a surface of a chair, he would have to find something truly straight to measure the surface against. He might find a ruler. Or perhaps a level. Now, of course he could measure the surface against something like the spine of a book. He could see whether the surface was more straight or less straight than the spine of the book. But it wouldn’t help him understand still if the surface was actually, truly straight.

And so it is with the measure of excellence. There are many things with the shape of excellence, the same way the spine of a book had the shape of straightness. But only that which is truly excellent must be the ruler; and that ruler is God. When one measures oneself against God, they in a sense measure themselves against excellence itself. He is the very definition of excellent.

And yet what is remarkable is that God does not hold one accountable merely to the standard of Himself. But he takes into consideration the potential they have to be like Him. Should a deaf man be faulted for not hearing? Or a blind man for not seeing? So should one’s accountability for excellence be divorced from his capacity for it? But the whole of a person is taken into account in the measure of excellence. There remains no one with the same set of experiences, personality, gifts, passions, or interests as oneself. Does it not follow then that there remains no other accurate standard to measure one’s excellence except oneself?

So then, in the pursuit of excellence one should always consider the destination in light of what they have been given to work with. For excellence is not so much a destination as it is a continual improving and growing in excellence. The Lord’s command that one bear fruit or that one press on in spiritual maturity reflects something of this reality. It is not an issue of becoming instantly excellent but an issue of becoming increasingly excellent. God does not expect instant excellence but only a continual striving after excellence; a continual improvement; a continual growth and a step closer, however small or great, towards excellence as He is excellent.

True Excellence

And so it goes for the child and his drawing. He should not compare his drawing to a painting by Monet nor should he compare it to a toddler’s scribble. But he should judge it according to his ability; his struggle to write well, the way he grips the crayon too tightly, his lack of instruction and the rest. And when after much work and labor he takes a step back to consider his work, he should not grow discouraged nor be dissapointed but rejoice over his work.

For excellence is not found merely at the destination but in the journey. It is found when one’s work today is better than it was yesterday and when one’s work tomorrow will be better than it was today. And insofar as one continues in this, shall they not be found faithful? Are they not providing the world with a testimony of excellence? Are they not pleasing the Lord? This is true excellence. And who knows the possibility of how incredibly excellent one’s work and life could be if one would persist in this day by day! It’s beyond prediction and God is the limit!