Excellence is Archaic and Over-rated

The idea that God demands our best, or excellence from us, has stuck like a splinter in my brain over the past few days. The statement struck me with the dissonance that “God likes the color blue” might bring. It left me wondering if it was true about God.

Excellence is archaic and over-rated. Good, better, best works well when shopping for tires at Walmart. Yet, evaluating our work, life, marriage, parenting or ministry in a similar comparative way might be problematic. It is too low and too precarious of a goal. Spending too much time weighing ourselves, or our product against the performance of others, or our past performance often leads to tug-or-war match between insecurity and pride (ref. 2 Cor 10:12, 17-18). Honors and accolades are cool, but they all provide an external target – being better than someone or something else.

So, we are left with finding a way to move that target inside - working not to be the best, but reaching toward a deeper goal. A comment about GE setting a business plan for closing up shop unless they can be the top #1, 2 or 3 leaders in a field. Checking around the current website, I didn't find their current leadership culture touting “be number one” slogans. Instead… innovation, quality, integrity, imagination. They are reaching far beyond the top end of the bell-curve by focusing on values and purpose.

I read on a recent church leadership blog that: “Many times in the marketplace the greatest credibility we can have with our friends and associates is provided through the fact we are really good at what we do, not necessarily that we are really nice or helpful or polite or kind.” I work for a quick service restaurant group. It is fun that our company and specific store sits at the top of some list. Certainly, no one hopes that that will change, but it does and will. We set goals and work hard. However, in the end, the mark and continued success of our vocation is built one face-to-face encounter at a time.

Embracing and expressing values like authenticity, honesty, determination, generosity, faithfulness and love will make an impact wherever you are “ranked” and will provide bedrock for the success that comes (and goes).

God likes values – justice, mercy, compassion, honesty, generosity, integrity... I’m not sure that God cares about excellence in the same way that we do.