There is a disease spreading through Christianity that is embraced, encouraged, and cultured to grow.  The symptoms of the disease are behavior problems, myopia, listlessness, and silence.  This virus is called mediocritosis.

Here is a definition of this pervasive disease:

MEDIOCRITOSIS:  A mental disorder that affects all functions of the body often causing the afflicted to become lazy, procrastinating, complaining, and generally fatigued.  The disease is fatal over the long term.  The spread of the disease is caused by a chemical change in the brain that allows the victim to suffer unaware while infecting others.

I know this sounds a bit contrived, but think with me about your experience as a Christian.  Are you lazy with your faith?  Do you put off things you should be doing and know you are doing because you just don’t have the energy?  Do you fashion every circumstance you encounter in life into a “Look at how this affects ME” scenario?

I recall a letter that Paul wrote to the Colossian church when he was speaking to those who were the workers, (3:23) “Whatever you do… do it with excellence, as doing it for God and not for men.”

Somehow we’ve not only gotten caught up in the mundane rat race, trying to make a way for ourselves and our families, but we’ve accepted that mediocrity is the answer.  This answer bleeds from our work lives into our faith lives and the result is lackluster Christian character that ends up running our church and running people away from faith in general.

God’s example is nothing short of excellence.  Christ Jesus’ example is nothing short of excellence.  We are called to be like Christ, so how is it that we accept, teach, and breed mediocrity?  If you are living a mediocre faith life, then you have failed to be obedient to God.

God’s will, if you recall, is simply to love him with all that you are out of every fiber of your being and to love others as yourself.  Excellence is what happens when you get out of the mold of mediocrity and actually begin to serve others.  God asks for our best, and we negotiate ourselves into giving Him our left-overs.  Why not spend a day or two reviewing your walk of faith and asking yourself, “how can I do this with excellence?”

Excellence is going above the norm to do something as you are presenting it to God.  Excellence will invigorate your life.

Good or bad, whatever I do or put my hands on has to be done with passion and intensity.  I live with the idea that everything… and I mean everything… is a reflection on me, my family, and my faith.  The last thing I want to do is shine a light on God that is dim, lazy, and less than what He deserves.

Excellence in faith looks something like this:

• You go the second mile when only asked to go one mile.
• Speak your faith when backed into a corner.
• Spend time learning who God is by reading his word and living like The WORD.
• Do something to help your neighbor rather than worrying about how you’ll be treated.
• Stop dreaming of things you could do and start doing them.
• Do everything in your life to the best of your ability without holding anything back.

Excellence is a learned trait.  It takes energy to get moving and it takes commitment to keep moving.  Never buy into the idea that someone else is better equipped.  And don’t burden yourself with the idea that Excellence means running the whole show.

Excellence means that you give 100% of your efforts to whatever your hands are touching using the God given talents to complete the task – without complaint.

Mediocritosis is nearing plague status in the Christian faith.  We should be sick of watching people sit on the sidelines and complain about how the world is going to hell.  Newsflash… the world will go to hell if you don’t get off your butt and actually start living a life of Excellence…doing something about it.

May your prayers be that God show you where you’ve become mediocre at living your faith, and reveal to you how to change to a servant of excellence.  The Wanted Man is a guy who is willing to step up to excellence.  Our families want it, our friends want it, and our culture wants it.    If we fail at excellence, the next generation will perceive our mediocrity as excellence… and that is unacceptable.

Discover more of The Wanted Man Series Here.
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