There’s a well-known aphorism (often attributed to Voltaire) that says “the best is the enemy of the good”. It basically means that striving towards perfection gets in the way of accomplishing anything meaningful at all.
There are many applications and variations to this idea such as, “if you never miss a plane, you’re spending too much time at the airport” (George Stigler).
But I’ve also heard the exact opposite of this: “the good is the enemy of the best.” To me this means that when I settle for “good enough”, I won’t ever experience the best there is. In my life, while I appreciate this sentiment, I recognize that it hinders my decision-making. (I can’t buy a coffee table until I’ve seen all the coffee tables and know I’ve found the best one.)
In today’s verse, Jesus is saying that the second of these sayings is the only valid option for my spiritual life. I should always be striving toward perfection. And only Jesus is perfect. I can give everything I have to the poor, but without Jesus, that act is meaningless as far as my salvation is concerned. I can’t buy my way to heaven. I can only grab onto Jesus’s offered hand of perfection and be pulled along.
When it comes down to choosing to do “good” or choosing to obey God, obeying God should always win. Obedience to God is the best there will ever be.
Dear God,
Thank you for your perfect will. I’m sorry for the times when I think I know better. Teach me to always seek to obey you first and foremost. I want to participate in your perfection and not settle for the world’s idea of good enough.
When I was a little girl I loved to visit my grandparents’ farm. Farming is a lot of work, and I’m sure my grandmother had plenty to do besides entertain a curious little kid. So she would send me out to gather the eggs from the hen house. She explained what to do and how to do it without upsetting the chickens. It was serious business as those eggs were very valuable in the household.
When I got to the hen house the first time, I was scared. I saw the way the hen eyed my hand as I moved to reach under her. I was certain she would peck me, and that beak looked very sharp.
I went back into the kitchen. My grandmother asked where the eggs were. I told her I was too scared. She said, “That’s OK. Your uncle will get the eggs later, but if you don’t get them now, you won’t have any for breakfast.”
I was hungry so I braved the glare of the hens and brought back some delicious fresh eggs.
In today’s verse, Esther faces a similar, but much more dire, situation. Her life, not just breakfast, is on the line. She has been asked to intercede for the Jews with the king, and she is scared. If she approaches him without first being summoned, it could mean execution. That’s when her uncle Mordecai tells her basically what my grandmother told me: “That’s OK. The Jews’ salvation will come from someone else, but you won’t be saved.”
God loves to use His people to accomplish His will. It gives us purpose, meaning, confidence, and satisfaction. It’s good to feel needed. And it’s a lovely way to bond — helping someone with an important task. God loves to bond that way with His children.
My grandmother didn’t need me to get the eggs any more than God needed Esther to save the Jews. But my grandmother knew that the experience would help me grow in confidence. God knew Esther’s faith (as well as that of everyone who heard her story) would grow by her obedience as well.
How is God asking me to participate today?
Dear God,
Thank you for inviting me to participate in your work in the world. Forgive me for the times when I am too scared or too distracted by less important things. Please remind me how much I have to gain by joining you obediently in accomplishing your will.
My guess is that you have. It seems that everyone has at least heard the name, as associated with Christianity. I’m probably very wrong about that because there are many regions of the world I have not visited, probably with vast stretches of land where the inhabitants have never heard His name.
But, if you’re reading this, you’ve probably at least heard of Jesus. He’s quite famous.
Even if you haven’t heard about Jesus, the Bible says the heavens and creation speak to us about God. See Psalms 19:1-4 CSB.
But what does it take to get from hearing to faith?
Does it depend on the exact message? Or the messenger? A bit of both?
I think that a person immediately has “faith” when they hear a story. They either believe it, which is faith, or they don’t, which is also faith.
When someone tells me the sky is green, I look up, see that it is blue, and have faith that their story is wrong. I have faith that everything else they tell me will be wrong too.
Not everything is as easy to verify as the sky color though, so how do I discern the truth? How do I come up with my faith?
The Bible says that this is where the Holy Spirit comes in. He speaks to the heart of each person who hears about Jesus.
But Christians, the messengers, also play a very important role.
If someone tells Jane that Jesus is good and loves her, but she looks around at His followers and sees nothing but hatred, judgment, hypocrisy, and fear, she will not believe the story.
However, if she sees love, generosity, humility, and joy among His followers, that will go a long way toward building her faith in the truth of Jesus as loving Savior.
Dear God,
Please remind me how my actions affect other people’s beliefs about you. I know you are loving and holy and beautiful and good. I’m sorry for the things I do that fly in the face of that as your follower. Guide me in how to talk about you and live out my faith with joy and love.
My hometown had a rural swimming hole that was frequently used for skinny dipping. (I’d been there once myself as a teenager, at night. Exhilarating!) I don’t see anything wrong with swimming in the buff, but I suppose it could lead to some more reckless behavior in the wrong company. And maybe it is technically illegal. Still, I don’t feel it’s my job to police the behavior of other people, especially non-believers.
I knew one woman who disagreed with my philosophy. She would stand at the trailhead leading to the well-known skinny-dipping hot spot and ask people if they knew Jesus. I don’t think there’s necessarily anything wrong with that either, but it seems ill-advised.
For one thing, I don’t think it is an effective use of her time. Those people don’t want to stand around in the hot sun debating some random lady.
Also, her method is confrontational and quite judgmental. Presumably she chose that particular location, instead of a downtown street corner, because she has decided the visitors there are more sinful than she is. They must not know Jesus.
Finally, it’s not biblical. Sure, Jesus commanded His disciples to go into all the world and preach the Good News. But He didn’t say to only go to places you think the really bad or obvious sinners hang out. No. He said to go into all the world. Every place I go as I go about my life is my mission field.
And he didn’t tell His disciples to confront people about their perceived sins. He said to tell them how much God loves them. Preach the Good News! Their sin will be dealt with by God, in His time.
Today’s verse describes the more effective methodology: I am to live a life filled with bright hope, and when anyone comes to me, asking why I have hope, then I tell them about Jesus’s salvation born of God’s love. The key is people should be coming to me because I’m different.
Am I different? Am I shining hope, peace and joy throughout my day? Has anyone asked me about the reason for my hope?
If not, I have some work to do. And it’s not with a picket sign at the entrance to the nude beach.
Dear God,
Thank you so much for your love and salvation. I do not deserve it but am so very grateful for it. Remind me to live in gratitude and joy — so much so that people become curious and ask me about it. Give me the words and the courage to speak about you whenever it seems appropriate in my interactions. Forgive me if I ever think I’m better than anyone else and remind me that I’m a sinner very much in need of you.
Mary said today’s verse when she was pregnant with Jesus, the Savior of the world. What an amazing woman she must have been to see this as a blessing. I guess that’s why God chose her. He knew all about her optimism and strength. And most importantly, her faith.
If someone had told me, “Ok, you’re going to be pregnant now, even though you live in a place where the perception of infidelity can get you killed. And you will raise a child who is supposed to save all humanity. Oh and by the way, you will get to watch him be brutally executed in his mid-30s,” I doubt that I would have sung this song of praise to God right away. I wouldn’t have thought, “What a blessing!” I may have been feeling a little more cursed.
But that’s me. Good thing God didn’t select me.
He didn’t choose me because I’m more of a worrier and a pessimist. (Not something I’m proud of, and definitely something I want to change.)
I would have worried throughout the whole pregnancy that I would do something stupid to hurt this special baby. And then while raising the child I’d worry about doing the right things, saying the right things, teaching the right things. Could I somehow screw up the child so badly that he wouldn’t end up saving the world after all? And then I’d constantly worry about the day when he would be killed. Can I stop it? How can I protect him? Will it be today?
I have a lot to learn from Mary’s simple song of amazement, hope, trust, and gratitude.
Dear God,
I’m sorry that I react with fear instead of joy when you give me the simplest of challenges. Please show me how to replace my worry with trust, my pessimism with hopeful anticipation, and my dread with gratefulness. Teach me to have faith like Mary, knowing you are Mighty and Holy and Great. I trust you to provide everything I need to confidently and competently manage everything you place in my hands.
On one hand, God is omniscient. He knows everything about the past, the present, and the future so how could anything surprise Him? To be surprised, He would have to be unaware of something until it happened.
On the other hand, God gave me freedom to choose, to decide my own fate, to do stupid things or to obey His wisdom. So, shouldn’t my choices surprise Him from time to time? If not, do I actually have a choice, if God has everything all planned out?
To me these things don’t really seem problematic or contradictory, but I have spoken with some people who are really perplexed by both things being true: God being omniscient and my having freedom.
The answer is just that time is different to God. It isn’t linear to Him the way it is for me. To God, a thousand years is like a day (Psalm 90:4, 2 Peter 3:8). He knows it all as if it were now. It’s beyond my ability to fathom, of course, but it’s a simple thing to God. He is the Great I AM (always present tense).
So, I do have a choice. It’s just that God knows what I have chosen because He is beyond time. He has already taken my bad choices and woven them together with my good choices into a beautiful thread that is my life. And He has woven my thread along with your thread into His plans making the beautiful tapestry of His will.
My choices are real. But there is no way I can screw up His wonderful plans. He has already incorporated my mistakes, sins, and stupidity, weaving my them together with His forgiveness, ending up with the most beautiful piece of art. He sees it all and has worked (and will continue to work) it all out for good. Like today’s verse says, His wondrous plans formed long ago are accomplished with amazing faithfulness.
Dear God,
I am amazed by who you are and dumbfounded by your ability to always be the same. Thank you for giving me the freedom to make choices in my life, but thank you even more for redeeming those choices with your forgiveness when I humbly seek your will. I look forward one day to seeing the way you turned my life into your beautiful piece of art, despite my faults and failures.
Many years ago, I went on a trip to a remote area of the Philippines. It was not a tourist destination, and it was not easily accessible. I was clearly an outsider and a rare sight. With my fair skin and light hair, I stuck out like a sore thumb.
Even so, I was welcomed warmly at a local church service. It was my first time worshiping in such a foreign situation. The songs, speeches, and prayers were in a language I didn’t understand. The routines and rituals were unfamiliar to me. As I looked around, I remember realizing that although this worship was so different than what I was used to, the people in that congregation were worshiping the same Jesus. They knew Him the same way I knew Him. God doesn’t play favorites. His love and forgiveness are freely available to all. I also remember how this surprised me just a little and opened my heart and eyes to how vast God’s love really is.
The early Jewish Christians were surprised by this as well. When God told Peter to preach at a Gentile’s house, Peter was very skeptical. But then God surprised Peter by pouring His Holy Spirit into all the Gentiles in the house.
After Peter’s shock wore off, he said today’s verse. He wonders why he should have been surprised by God’s love. All the prophets spoke about it, after all. They all say God’s salvation is for all people. Everyone!
So why didn’t he believe it? Why didn’t I, deep down? Deep-seated bias.
I don’t have any special connection to God that isn’t available to anyone else. God’s love for me is personal and valuable and priceless. But His love for someone in a remote village of a small island in the Philippines is just as special and valuable and personal and priceless.
Jesus died for me, and He died for that person as well. He died for everyone.
Dear God,
Forgive me for my prejudices. Forgive me for thinking you love me more than you love someone very different from me. I know you love your entire creation, all people, equally. You love worship from your children in whatever language, location, or form it takes. And your forgiveness is available to us all in equal measure. Teach me to be as impartial in my love as you are.
I was not the valedictorian of my high school class. Nor was I the salutatorian. I graduated third in my class. (There’s no name for that, apparently.) And that was exactly the way I wanted it. Why? Because the people in those top two spots were required to give speeches at graduation. And I was not at all interested in doing that!
But I’m unusual in my goal of third place.
We don’t give trophies and gold medals for last place. We don’t hold elections for “average citizen” or “member”. No one auditions with the hope of becoming an extra.
Trophies and gold medals are reserved for first place winners. Elections are held for presidents and chairpeople. Actors audition in hopes of the lead role at casting calls.
That’s the way society works.
Jesus taught about God’s kingdom throughout His ministry. Everything He taught about it, including today’s verse, was upside-down and backwards from the culture then, the culture today, and human nature. But God’s kingdom is how God intended His creation to be. So which one is actually upside-down?
The reason God’s kingdom seems upside-down is because, due to our rebellion and selfish choices, we are living in a “fallen” world. We are all living in the upside-down.
Jesus came to teach us to see things right side up.
According to Him, if I want to be God’s leading role valedictorian and get my heavenly presidential gold medal, I have to be the servant-iest servant that ever served.
Dear God,
Thank you for sending Jesus to teach me how to serve and how important serving is. Forgive me for the times when I have scrambled for the front of the line and pushed my way to the top at the cost of others. Remind me how valuable serving is, how meaningful it is to be last, and how much you love patience, generosity, and humility.
I often wake up too early, for no good reason. I’m still sleepy and don’t need to get up yet, but my mind instantly starts gnawing on my most recently discovered reason to worry, or it starts making lists of the day’s important tasks, or any number of thoughts that draw me reluctantly away from slumber. I drag myself out of bed just to stop thinking those thoughts and get on with doing something about them.
But some days I remember today’s verse. I used to have it written out on a small piece of paper and taped to my bathroom mirror because it’s such a wonderful thing to be reminded of in the morning. The paper got old and toothpaste-splashed so I threw it out when we moved. I should print it out again so it can be with me first thing every morning.
Trusting God and His faithful love is the best way to start my day, whether I get up and get busy or decide to crawl back in bed to finish sleeping, without those pesky worries nagging me awake.
Dear God,
Thank you for this beautiful reminder of how your faithful love is all I need every morning. Forgive me for fretting about things that ultimately don’t matter. Guide me throughout my day and redirect my focus toward your goals and priorities instead of mine. Fill me with your peace.
I used to go to our town’s municipal swimming pool every day during the hot Wisconsin summers. My mom bought season passes for my sister and me and would drop us off each morning as soon as they opened. She was as disappointed as we were on days when thunderstorms threatened, and the pool was closed. My dad would pick us up when he got off work.
I loved swimming and hanging out with my friends at the pool. Looking back, I have no idea how I spent all those hours at the pool every afternoon. But I don’t ever recall being bored or wanting to leave.
I do remember having to work up my nerve to use the diving boards though. Years went by before I tried for the first time. There were three boards: low, middle, and high. The low board was easy enough once I got the hang of it. The middle board wasn’t that much of a challenge, and the big kids made it look so fun that I eventually got comfortable with it, bouncing fairly high before diving in (or more likely, cannonballing.)
The high dive was something altogether different. There was always a line of kids going up the ladder waiting. If you got to the top and were too scared, it was a big deal to make all those kids climb down to let you off. Plenty of jeers and boos and taunts.
I remember the first time I risked testing out the high dive. My heart raced as I climbed the ladder, higher and higher, the wet bum of the kid in front of me dripping in my face. I’m not scared of heights, but when I got to the top, it felt like I was on top of a skyscraper. All the children below me looked so small. The board seemed impossibly long and narrow, and the hand rails didn’t go all the way out there.
I breathed deeply. I stepped away from the hand rails slowly. The kids behind me groaned. I decided I couldn’t do it and moved to turn back, but the expression on the next kid’s face stopped me.
I wobbled out to the very end of the board, terrified. I thought of all the things that could go wrong. But then I remembered all the kids I’d seen dive off without a thought. I decided I had to step off (the idea of actually diving made me swoon) without thinking about it anymore. My feet would have to do it by themselves without me knowing about it. So I stood there, watching some kid who was getting yelled at for running, and suddenly my feet stepped off the end of the board.
I was surprised.
And I was in midair. Weightless — such a crazy feeling — for the briefest of moments. And then I hit the water.
(I’m glad that first time I landed feet first because if I had landed any other way I may never have done it again. Water is hard!)
But when I went into the water, everything was OK. I was safe. Nothing horrible happened. I swam up to the surface and got out. Life at the pool went on.
I think partly, this is what Jesus is talking about in today’s verse. Giving is scary. It’s easy to think about the things that can go wrong or other ways that I could use that money. But He insists that I will be OK. If I trust Him with my money, He will bless me and take care of me.
So, I just do it. I let my feet step off without thinking or making a big deal. I let my right hand write the check while my left hand is busy with something else. It’s the best way. And everything will be OK.
Dear God,
Thank you for your promise to bless me and care for me when I trust you with my possessions and my money. They are yours. Thank you for letting me make use of them. Help me to remember to be generous with all that I have and to do it quickly, simply, and quietly, with prayer but without fanfare.
CamDevo 