Be the Best

Last week I had a meeting with my team at work. We were asked to share some insights on our opinion of one of the company fundamentals, “Strive for Excellence.” The first thing that popped into my head was a quote by Vince Lombardi. When talking to his players at the beginning of the season he said, “Gentlemen, we will chase perfection, and we will chase it relentlessly, knowing all the while we can never attain it. But along the way, we shall catch excellence.”

This quote was first introduced to me by one of the Residence Assistants at my college. I’ll be honest I don’t remember everything he said, but I made sure to find the quote online and take a screenshot so that I would at least remember that. This quote can be applied to the Christian life in a big way, which is what my RA was getting at (I assume), and what I wanted to get at in my meeting.

Striving for excellence is a great trait for an employee. I don’t believe an employer hires someone to just be a “good” employee. What I mean by a “good” employee is an employee who does what he or she was hired for. That is the bare minimum of what an employer expects. What an employer is hoping for, or perhaps even expecting, is an employee who goes beyond simply doing their job. This may mean taking on more tasks, coming up with innovative ideas, or becoming more efficient with the tasks they have been given. Ultimately, an employer hopes that they will embody the purpose of the company and represent the company well by the way they act as well as by what they say.

Now, liken that to the Christian walk. God doesn’t call us to be “good” Christians, but to strive to be perfect Christians (Matthew 5:48). A “good” Christian may be someone who does not murder, does not commit adultery, goes to church, and overall refrains from the “big” sins. But that is a truly sad way to live your life. If you are not striving to be better, to attain a greater and more intimate relationship with God, you are grossly missing out. (Some food for thought: A “good” Christian may in fact be better written as a “good Christian.” In other words, is a "good" Christian even a Christian at all? Galatians 5:19-21 and James 2:14-26 show us that a Christian who is okay with sin reigning in their body and who do not show their faith by their works are not believers at all. But that is not the point of this article so let me move on before I go too far down the rabbit hole!)

But now lets say you strive to become a better Christian. You take that next step and begin to refrain from all sorts of evil. You now admit that “little white lies” are sin and do hurt, at the very least, God. You aim to refrain from being selfish, from cursing, from getting drunk. You pray more, you read your Bible, you endeavor to have a closer relationship with God. This is, first of all, a sign that you are truly a believer. It is also a sign that you are serious about God. My Dad used to always say, “not sinless, but serious.” No we will never be perfect, but we do need to be serious about our relationship with God. We need to aim to obey His Word and push back against our flesh.

This leads me on to my last point. All believers, including myself, ought to strive to be the best Christian we can be. We ought to strive to be sinless. We ought to strive to be perfect. We ought to take Matthew 22:37-39 seriously. Loving God isn’t even enough. We are called to love Him with all our heart, soul, and mind. We ought to be holy. 1 Peter 1:16 tells us that we ought to be holy, the same way God is holy! The closer you get to Christ the more you understand how impossible this task is, and yet, that is what God expects from us. It is what He commands us to do, because He is holy and perfect and sinless. He cannot expect or command any less than perfection.

Why should we strive for perfection if we know we cannot reach it? Why aim to be sinless when we never will be? Why pursue holiness if we will never meet that standard? Think back to the Vince Lombardi quote I mentioned at the beginning, and you will get your answer. Because though we will never be perfect, by striving for perfection, we will be the best Christians we can be. We will have a deep, intimate relationship with the God of the universe. And once we are welcomed into heaven we will hear the words every Christian yearns to hear, “Well done.”

Follow us on Social Media!