1. Spend your life pursuing God and investing in people.
2. If we seek comfort from what this world has to offer and we build our life around that pursuit - trying to insulate ourselves from pain and discomfort – we’ll miss our calling.
Time for number three.
3. Deliberate mediocrity is a sin. I read this quote over a year ago but can’t get it out of my mind. Since then, it’s been confirmed and revisited in other books I’ve read and some songs I love.
Let me give you some definitions:
Mediocrity – a moderate degree of excellence; ordinary; indifferent
Complacency – contentment; a smug feeling of self-satisfaction (with who you are and what you’ve done).
Ok, so I have a new favorite book. I bought "Do Hard Things – A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations" by Alex and Brett Harris for my sons to read. Naturally, I read it first and I’m so jazzed about it that I’ve already bought 5 copies for every teenager I know who has an occasion coming up that I might need to give him/her a gift for. (It’s written by teens for teens and is really motivating.) Read on and see what I mean.
“The daily periodical Bits & Pieces shares this chilling picture of what's
really happening: (in our culture)
Complacency is a blight that saps energy, dulls attitudes and causes a drain
on the brain. The first symptom is satisfaction with things as they are.
The second is rejection of things as they might be.
"Good enough" becomes today's watchword and tomorrow's standard. Complacency makes people fear the unknown, mistrust the untried, and abhor the new. Like water, complacent people follow the easiest course - downhill. They draw false strength from looking back."
I think that truth-packed quote certainly could be applied to so many areas of life. How many of us could be characterized as fearful of the unknown, mistrusting the untried and abhorring the new? Do we have little energy and a dull attitude? Are we satisfied with things as they are and prone to reject what they might be? Gracious – how big do we think our God is…or isn’t? Do we believe He can only accomplish what we are able to explain or what we’ve already seen? Or is He waiting to unleash His Spirit in a new way in present and future generations?
Later the authors say, “Over time, refusing to reach higher, try harder and risk more robs us of the glorious purpose and wonderful future God has created us for.” What are we so afraid of? What other people think? That we’ll fail?
MercyMe puts it well in their song “Goodbye, Ordinary”.
I wonder when we first bought into this
So satisfied with status quo
Have we convinced ourselves that this is all there is?
We were never meant to compromise
Settle for mediocrity
This life was never made to be a waste of time
Well all that is within me says no more just existing
Live like there’s no tomorrow
Love extravagantly
Lead a life to be followed
Goodbye ordinary. Goodbye ordinary.
The Harris boys give three strategies for stepping higher. “We recommend that teens do three hard things that go above and beyond what our culture expects:
1. Do what’s hard for you.
2. Be known for what you do (more than what you don’t).
3. Pursue excellence, not excuses.”
Granted, I’m not a teenager anymore but what an awesome message for adults too. If we’re bored with life or bored with church, it’s not because God is boring. Perhaps it’s because we’ve settled for complacency, status quo or mediocrity. We’re comfortable with who we are and what our life looks like. We’ve got to break free from that lesser thinking! No more comfort zone living. Engage God. Ask Him to do something big through you. Tell Him you want an adventure. Then go do something hard for Him. He’ll give you everything you need to accomplish it because it’s for His glory!
And you might just find yourself satisfied and hungry for more. Deliberate mediocrity is a sin. Let’s be deliberate for God instead.
"Good enough" becomes today's watchword and tomorrow's standard. Complacency makes people fear the unknown, mistrust the untried, and abhor the new. Like water, complacent people follow the easiest course - downhill. They draw false strength from looking back."
I think that truth-packed quote certainly could be applied to so many areas of life. How many of us could be characterized as fearful of the unknown, mistrusting the untried and abhorring the new? Do we have little energy and a dull attitude? Are we satisfied with things as they are and prone to reject what they might be? Gracious – how big do we think our God is…or isn’t? Do we believe He can only accomplish what we are able to explain or what we’ve already seen? Or is He waiting to unleash His Spirit in a new way in present and future generations?
Later the authors say, “Over time, refusing to reach higher, try harder and risk more robs us of the glorious purpose and wonderful future God has created us for.” What are we so afraid of? What other people think? That we’ll fail?
MercyMe puts it well in their song “Goodbye, Ordinary”.
I wonder when we first bought into this
So satisfied with status quo
Have we convinced ourselves that this is all there is?
We were never meant to compromise
Settle for mediocrity
This life was never made to be a waste of time
Well all that is within me says no more just existing
Live like there’s no tomorrow
Love extravagantly
Lead a life to be followed
Goodbye ordinary. Goodbye ordinary.
The Harris boys give three strategies for stepping higher. “We recommend that teens do three hard things that go above and beyond what our culture expects:
1. Do what’s hard for you.
2. Be known for what you do (more than what you don’t).
3. Pursue excellence, not excuses.”
Granted, I’m not a teenager anymore but what an awesome message for adults too. If we’re bored with life or bored with church, it’s not because God is boring. Perhaps it’s because we’ve settled for complacency, status quo or mediocrity. We’re comfortable with who we are and what our life looks like. We’ve got to break free from that lesser thinking! No more comfort zone living. Engage God. Ask Him to do something big through you. Tell Him you want an adventure. Then go do something hard for Him. He’ll give you everything you need to accomplish it because it’s for His glory!
And you might just find yourself satisfied and hungry for more. Deliberate mediocrity is a sin. Let’s be deliberate for God instead.
P.S. Jesus was far from mediocre. When He came, He changed modern-day ‘religion’ as it was known. Everything He did flew in the face of religious rituals. What if He tried that in the ‘church’ of 2008? Would He get the same response?
italics mine
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