Excellence

Here’s a liberating thought – none of us know it all. We’re not expected to and if we put such high expectations on ourselves, it’s a recipe for a seriously rude awakening...eventually.
So here’s an encouraging thought – We’re all in this together and we can lean on one another. Just make sure that your trajectory is never satisfied with the status quo.
Seek higher, and seek to help others to higher, better, excellence.
In that frame of mind, here’s some quotes that I didn’t write, but I find them to be inspiring to raise the standard; to reassess the trajectory and to inspire to REALLY give God the best of my efforts since He deserves nothing less.

”If you want to achieve excellence, you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing less-than-excellent work.” - Thomas J. Watson

“Mediocrity will never do. You are capable of something better.” ― Gordon B. Hinckley

"The test of the artist does not lie in the will with which he goes to work, but in the excellence of the work he produces." - Thomas Aquinas

"Today, and every day, deliver more than you are getting paid to do. The victory of success will be half won when you learn the secret of putting out more than is expected in all that you do. - Og Mandino

Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” – Aristotle

”If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.” --Colin Powell

”The secret of living a life of excellence is merely a matter of thinking thoughts of excellence. Really, it's a matter of programming our minds with the kind of information that will set us free.” - Charles R. Swindoll

Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence – Vince Lombardi

Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected. – Steve Jobs

“If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way” ― Martin Luther King Jr.

Notice these quotes and notice that the people who made them. It’s very likely that none of these people knew each other but the overarching idea of excellence permeates in a way that’s easily understood. If you sat and thought of delivering a quote about excellence – you could, and if you sat and thought about ways to give God your best – you could.
I think that conceptually, this post was the hardest one I’ve attempted in some time. After reading what I wrote initially, I found it to be more pushy than encouraging and although I have an appreciation for that push we all need sometimes, I didn’t feel in my heart that it was the right play. Honestly, I believe that I can speak candidly in saying that my heart’s desire is that we would return and reassume a posture of excellence.

Here’s The Word;

Mark 12:30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.

Isaiah 58:2 Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God.

1 Corinthians 10:31 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

2 Corinthians 4:7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

Notice that these men who were moved by the Holy Spirit didn't know each other either. However, they had a high view of God in His magnificence. They yielded themselves under the power of God, allowing Him to produce His most excellent word through them. The same can be true for us in letting His light shine through us.
God, in Christ, reached down to our lowly estate and not only did He free us from the power of sin and death, He called, justified and glorified us, bringing us into inseparable communion with Him. He, in The Spirit, has empowered us to shed the old deadness we were incased in - that we would be able to grow in righteousness and give Him the excellence He so deserves.

In Him,
Cros