You're Best Isn't Good Enough

I worked the early shift at UPS for two years. Supervisors yelling, co-workers sending boxes back up line, conveyor running, running, running. Mistakes were easy and rewarded with verbal affronts, not malicious but almost. The first days and weeks were harrowing.

One morning, Dave, my supervisor saw my woeful speed: “You gotta move faster! Your stuff is getting past and blocking the line! Move, move, MOVE!!”

“I am doing my best,” I protested, trying to hide indignation.

He was unimpressed: “Your best is not good enough!”

I knew he was right, but I protested in my soul. My best is not good enough?

This lesson is painfully true in life and ministry. All we can do is our best and that is what God expects, but it is not all He expects. He expects us to improve our best. Am I hurt when efforts are unappreciated and misunderstood, shortcomings criticized and strengths ignored? Yes! My best is not good enough! But if I quit and apply the poison salve of bitterness I only get worse. I have to take my lumps and see if I can improve my serve.

There are two lessons here:

One, our best can be better and it is wrong to just get by with what is comfortable. If we have a worthy goal for which we feel called then the fear of God calls us to be better. Job was surpassingly good but that did not make him successful. Success requires hard word and lots of it, steady excellence over time, willingness to fail and learn from it, and refusal to expect success as a result of virtue. Job's success came from his work and God's blessing, not just his exemplary goodness. 

Lesson two is this: God is the ultimate judge so seek His approval. He wants you to succeed and is relentless in His demands of your character, discipline, and effort. But He values you as His child, not just a performer whose “best is not good enough.” Because God is our Father, our best is good enough, it just isn't all. “Let me help you,” He says. “Look what you can be if you listen, learn and apply yourself here.”

My best is not good enough. Yes that stings, but I think it is true.

God's calls me to be all I can be, with glad hope of His smile and of someday hearing His triumphant, “Well done!”