Good Enough

I’ve become more and more aware of something as I enter this period of my life – I’m driven. I have high expectations of myself. I’ve actually always been this way but I notice it more as I enter a stage in my life where I see clearly my purpose in life and I see that I am in a stage where I can actually be productive (I’m not so young I’m looked down upon, and I’m not so old that I can’t produce results any longer). I have goals and I’m not satisfied with “good enough”; I want to be better and I want to do better. This doesn’t mean that I’m perfect and that I don’t have my moments of apathy.

What drives me absolutely crazy is the “good enough” crowd. They don’t care to do better, they don’t care to be progressive, they have no goals, and they are not motivated. I drive through some of the streets in our rural towns and I see “good enough” everywhere. I drive by places where the attitude is, “I’m not taking the washing machine off the porch, I don’t need to paint the house, weed the garden, shovel the walk, mow the lawn – it’s good enough. I don’t need to go to college, get good grades, and speak with proper grammar. I don’t need any goals, I’ll do enough just to get by. Why excel? Why do anything excellently?”

While I’m on a roll here let me just say, I don’t mow my lawn or trim around my yard because I enjoy it! I do it because I’m a good neighbor. I do it because I love my neighbor (my Boss told me that’s the way I’m supposed to do it). I don’t work hard at making our church excellent in every area because I want a pat on the back – I do it because I love Jesus Christ and I’m reflecting the Creator of the Universe and “good enough” just doesn’t cut it. “Good enough” is not in God’s vocabulary. What if while God was creating the Universe He put the sun 2,000 miles closer to the earth and said, “good enough”? We’d be toast! Deuteronomy 32:4 tells us His works are perfect. And Jesus tells us in Matthew 5 to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect.

Please get off your “good enough”, better yourself and better the world around you!