Perfection vs. Excellence

Being perfect is impossible, it’s something we will all fall short of. Excellence is something we strive for. It’s a mindset of how we plan to live our lives, make our choices, and grow from the things that challenged us. Excellence is the daily choice to be good.

I was reading this morning in my devotional from Genesis 1, about how God created the world. He created it all, the heavens and the earth (v1). Every star in the sky, every animal around, every valley and every mountain, everything. And after He created everything, everything in His image. God took a step back and looked at His creation and said “it is good” (v. 31). We are made in his perfect image, everything he made was in his image and it IS good! So I guess the question is if everything was made in His perfect image, why is the idea of perfection unattainable for us?

Well, perfection is unattainable because of sin. Perfection or being perfect is something that we fell short of when God commanded us to not eat from the tree (Genesis 2:16-17). But how can today we learn from the fall of man, and truly every day shape our lives the way God intended for us? I mean, it’s really hard to even understand sometimes but with that one simple command from God - God wanted us to only know GOOD! He never wanted us to know bad.

So how can that idea of God only wanting us to know good, be something we use today to strive for excellence? Excellence is a mindset and something that takes a daily choice to find improvement. Excellence allows us to focus on a particular idea and make adjustments to grow, learn and ultimately reach a goal. Think of it this way, when you think to yourself - how can I be a better person? Are you demanding to yourself you be perfect, or are you looking into yourself for how you can change the things you need to get rid of in your life? As our pastor Todd Clark talked about in church this last weekend, there are things in our life we need to say hello to in the new year, and there are things we need to say goodbye to!

Now let us practically look at how we can achieve excellence every single day. It’s all about what we focus on. It is about how we can shift our ideas from thinking we failed, to thinking we can learn to grow. It is about how we can find grace within ourselves, and make choices to not continue doing the things we need to say “goodbye” to this year.

In Psalm 1 it says “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night...Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.” (Psalm 1:1-6)

We must focus our ways on the righteous. It sounds easy enough but that is a daily decision. That is a daily task that we must find ways to be rooted in Him, so we do not just wither and be driven away.

Perfection and excellence can a lot of time be mistaken for the same thing. However, when we take a closer look, it is indeed perfection that is something we cannot achieve. Daily as Christians and even just as people, we need to realize we cannot be perfect. When we think we can and fail, we go through a cycle of thinking we are not good enough, we are not worthy enough, we are simply just not enough. But, there is good news! We are enough, every day we are enough. God knew we would make choices, and God knew we would need Him more than ever to try and achieve daily excellence. God wants you and me to be excellent at rooting in Him. God wants you and I to make a daily decision to follow Him. And God wants you and I to say goodbye to those things and ideas holding us back.

So what are we waiting for? We do not need to be perfect to focus on God. Make a choice today to start finding ways to strive for excellence. And be the person God created you to be. Good.