I have often considered myself a proponent of being excellent in everything. I’ve encouraged so many to do the same, and to maximize the gift that God put inside of them. If He is a creator, a perfect creator, and we are made in his image, then we should also create (perhaps not perfectly, but at least on a pretty high level). Unfortunately, my judgment of where that level of excellence is and whether or not I've reached it seems to constantly change like a bouncing buoy on the stormy waves of the ocean.
My desire to achieve "better" and "best" started in grade school and continued into every other area of my life. Though the results of my hard work were sometimes noteworthy, many times my life lacked rest and peace, and the satisfaction of a job 'well done.' Many times I saw my fruit as only "good." Average. Satisfactory. In other words, my life grade was a "C+". Unlike Ralphie in A Christmas Story who believed his Christmas essay deserved an A++++, I knew my self-imposed grade was about what I deserved. That being said, I was still deflated with my C+. I wanted an A.Societal influences do not help this internal conflict. There is always a pressure (sometimes subtle, sometimes overt) to be more, to do more, to earn more, to have more… to always succeed higher. We often compare ourselves, our children, our job, our home, our accomplishments to those around us.
Now don’t get me wrong here. I do believe that we should aim high. Dreams are meant to propel us into places we never thought we could achieve. Influence in society as successful people requires a relevance and an adeptness at a talent or gift. As Christians, we are called to be salt. Salt changes its environment, and its absence is noticed.
It's not the goals that I'm speaking of. It's the result. It's the grade. Where did I land? In my mind, it was always short of my goal.
As I was contemplating all of this, I remembered a passage of scripture that I had read hundreds of times. No doubt you may have read it many times before. Even those who don’t profess faith are familiar with it. But sometimes a familiar passage can take on a new meaning. This was one of those times.
In the story of creation in the Bible, there is a phrase that repeats over and over throughout Genesis 1. It reads exactly the same in different translations. This phrase occurs after the conclusion of each element of creation.
“God saw that it was good.”
Good.
Not perfect.
Not even very good.
Just good.
What does good mean? I started to think of current educational standards, i.e. grades, as a way to evaluate our work. Even to adults, grades or performance reviews are an indication of how we are doing. If God were creating the world today and he was giving a grade to his creation by his view that it was good, what would the grade for “Good” be?
After reading multiple sites about what grades really mean and what I knew to be true, I determined that God was giving his work, his amazing creative work, somewhere between a “B” and a “C.” In other words, "C+".
Ok, now before you declare me a heretic and ignore the rest of what I have to say, let me finish. Hear me out until the end.
At the very end of creation culminating in man’s formation, when God surveyed everything, all of it, the sum total of all the “good,” the end result was ... “VERY GOOD.”
At no individual point along the way was anything considered “very good.” It wasn’t until all the work, all the results were put together, viewed not as separate events but as a string pieced together into a whole, that this designation was applied.
Immediately after this ultimate evaluation occurred and everything was finished, it allowed a very important and deliberate act to happen. “He rested.”
As I applied this to my own life, I realized that my ability to rest and to be satisfied is directly proportional to how I feel I am doing. Have I achieved excellent, very good, good, or have I failed?
When we have a connection with God that allows us to work at individual items in our lives to the point of them being “good” and when we are ok with “good” being enough, the overall perspective of all these “good” things put together will synthesize into something that is “very good.” In other words, we don’t have to strive to be excellent at every single thing we do. If we are hoping to achieve that, we find ourselves weary, unrested, and in some cases exhausted.
I believe if our perspective is to look at all the good, we can then string it together and view it as something very, very good. Not only that, we can truly rest. We can know that we are doing what we were created to do and doing it well.
Now for the verse that I alluded to above -- the "well done, my good and faithful servant" verse that many of us might have no doubt quoted. When Jesus told the parable of the talents, He uses the phrase, "Well done". Of course that's what we all want to hear, and at first glance, it seems to be contradictory to the verses in Genesis. When we put the verse in perspective, however, this affirmation is said only after the master returned from being gone for a LONG TIME. Once again, the 'well done' or 'very good' designation comes at the end of a progressive string of 'good' decisions and actions. Who knows how long the master was gone. A week, a month, a year, 10 years? The point is, it was a long time. We have to look at our life as a long journey that we are somewhere in the middle of.
The problem still remains... what is good?
Eating from the one tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, led to the fall of man, the entrance of sin, and a host of other things, including a perpetual need to work and a difficulty in finding rest. Why? Because we now have to figure out what is good. And for someone like me, good is never good enough. This constant pursuit leads to more work and more striving. Knowing how to define good was the temptation then and it is our temptation now.
As you examine the different elements of your life, I suggest you look at them through God's lens. Are you making a "C+"? Then it is good. If you feel like a failure, remember that no final grade is ever based on any one thing, and your semester isn't over yet. Sometimes you'll feel excellent and sometimes just good and sometimes like a failure. It's all ok. The purpose of not eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is that Adam and Eve didn't have to figure it out. They could rest in relationship with and trusting of God that they would not be judged on every single success or failure.
I'm still a proponent of excellence. But I'm also a proponent of relationship with God. I have learned not to exhaust myself doing more, achieving more, trying to keep up with those around me or with my own view of excellence. Instead I have kept the connection that allows me to see my life and work as good.
Find out from God what GOOD really means for you. Knowing that all of our good, in connection with a perfect creator, will ultimately be pieced together into something beautiful and very, very good. When you realize that, your "C+" is good enough.
Subsequently, you will be able to rest, consistently, knowing that you don’t have to figure it all out. One step at a time, one task at a time. It is good.
Related blog post: Framing the Pages of Your Life
