Spirit of Excellence

Many people look to religion as some form of spiritual support, and Christianity inevitably falls under that same category by means of associations or generalization. And inevitably, Christianity becomes relevant only to the weak, the helpless, the CMI (cannot make it) ones. For a long time, evangelistic efforts focus primarily on the dysfunctional and the unfortunate ones, and for a long time Christians from all over the world deemed it appropriate to make the following comment: only at our weakest and our most broken that we are able to see and acknowledge that God is the One who has come for us. That gave rise to seemingly self-mutilating prayers: come and break me, Lord! (I want to suggest that not all prayers that are entailed with a "Lord" are directed at God.)

Yet, as we look at history, it didn't take a "breaking" for numerous faith giants to walk in ridiculous faith. Second-generation Christians often comment that first-generation converts are more radical because they have their special conversion story to boast about, but people like Samuel, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Samuel, David, John the Baptist all came through a long lineage of the same faith. It doesn't take a dramatic conversion to reignite an extinguishing flame, but it takes a deep conviction and a conscious decision and desire to fan into flame even the faintest spark. We carry around with us in our mouth the notion that when bad things happen, God is the One who allows them, but can I make a humble suggestion here? If anything were to happen by God's allowance, it is the free will that He has given to us. More often than not, bad things happen really because of men's foolish decisions. It is about time that we take charge of our life and take charge of our walk. God is not a scapegoat, neither is He merely functional. He is a Partner, a Friend, a Father, and above all, a Lover. 

With that, I want us to break away from the commonly professed characteristics of how a Christian should live. Out of a good heart, many advice has been formulated, in the bid of helping Christians live "Christian lives", so examples include the professing of faith at the workplace so that we would become conscious about the bar we have set for ourselves to live up to. But I want to suggest that when things are as such, we make things difficult for ourselves, and we discount ourselves of that same fullness promised in John 10:10. 

I was reading the book of Genesis during this season, and in the past few days I had arrived at the chapters that talk about Joseph and his times in Egypt. Genesis 39:3 and Genesis 39:21 mention that the presence of the Lord's works in Joseph's life was so explicit that both Potiphor and the prison guard were able to acknowledge it and react to it. This made me reconsider: have I been trying too hard. In what areas in Joseph's life did he worry about "misrepresenting God"? Let us go to the story of Daniel. These 2 characters epitomized the notion of carrying the Spirit of excellence almost to perfection, yet we can't help but to notice the stark difference between what we are trying to do and what was recorded in the bible. Today's culture advocates the need to strive, the need to be in control, so even in our walk with God, it is still about us- we need to work hard, we need to do well, we need to try our best THEN we would be able to say that we have the Spirit of excellence, THEN when people see they will have good impression of Christians. This whole understanding of the "Spirit of excellence" created in us the pressure to perform, which often ends off with self-condemning thoughts- I'm not good enough, I am too slack. It leaves no rooms for us to take a break, and it could even help us to create excuses to justify our idolatry of work (workaholism). Daniel and Joseph relied on God, whereas we lean upon ourselves. Do I mean to not try hard? Far from it! But I certainly am saying that Genesis 40:8, Genesis 41:16, and Daniel 2:28-30, that there is a TRUE GOD who is at work, who is revealing things, who is very much present today. Ask those who have tried hard enough, and they would probably say that even the hardest is never enough- God's grace is the one that abounds, and God's intervention is what kept the Spirit of excellence. 

It is not enough to just cling on to the functional aspect of our faith and look at Him as a very functional God (entity). He is not. The moment we shift our attention away from who He is and who we are in Him, we are already missing the point. It is never about doing things right, but it is about the right kind of relationship. Out of the latter flows our every other aspect of life. Otherwise, we are cut from the source, and every attempt to do things right only result in the wrong.