Monday Morning Manna: Average or Excellent?

My father was a workaholic.??My mother was a perfectionist.??Put them together and you get me.??If I had to remember one key word of my early life it would be the work “excellence.”??It was never enough to be average - not in school, nor in athletics, nor various methods of competition.??I carried this early training into my adulthood, and it was never enough to preach an average sermon or deliver an average lecture or even be an average competitor in trivial things like monopoly or ping pong, or even in - come to think of it - trivial pursuit. Now, in my early eighties, I can’t even be an average retiree.???Friends wonder how I keep the schedule that I keep.??I receive a daily e-mail from an organization that posts quotes to make readers think.??The other day, they posted the following quote from an anonymous author, “Excellence is the result of caring more than others think is wise, risking more than others think is safe, dreaming more than others think is practical, and expecting more than others think is possible.” I’ll have to let others decide how well I’ve done on the average to excellence scale.??I’ll just be satisfied by “reaching forward to those things which are ahead, (as) I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14). How about you???Are you striving to be average or excellent??

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Dr. Dan R. Crawford, Senior Professor, Chair of Prayer Emeritus; Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas. Former Head of Task Force for the Teaching of Prayer in Theological Education for America’s National Prayer Committee.? Administrative Consultant for the Valley Baptist Missions Education Center. President of Disciple All Nations, Inc.

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