Image: the cockpit of an airbus.
The World War Two generation understood how to fight to the death. They knew what it was to live through a world at war, and to fear how things would end up, should the Allies lose. Life for the WWII generation (often called “The Greatest Generation”) must have been almost unbearably serious.
But when the war ended, the children of the returning soldiers embraced the opposite: relaxation. Young people in the postwar period, ‘Hippies’ many called themselves, wanted to “Turn on, Tune In, and Drop Out,” to use Timothy Leary’s 1966 phrase. That is, they wanted to avoid responsibilities, work as little as possible, make their own decisions, and relax. Everything was groovy. Until it wasn’t. Their approach left many of them angry, hurting, and broke. The women, particularly, suffered from the way the era’s so-called ‘free love’ benefitted only the men.[1]
The drug-enhanced Hippie attempt at peace, love, and happiness through different (usually much lower) expectations, was an act of naked rebellion against the brutally hard work many of their parents had done to win the war. Young people of the 1960s revolted against the high expectations thrust upon them by their parents.
What ethic did they embrace instead of hard working excellence? “Do Your Own Thing.” The trouble with a Do-Your-Own-Thing ethic is that you usually do a lot less. No one achieves as much alone as with a coach. And doing your own thing means coaching yourself into mediocrity.
Thus, everyone does everything halfway. Show up late. Leave early. Do almost all of a task. When the boss asks if you finished, you answer, “pretty much.”
Do you do that? Do you look at a task that is a bit more than half complete, shrug, and say, “Good enough!” If so, you might have been right at home as a young person in the 60s and 70s.
The problem, of course, is that all tasks should be done well, and some tasks require perfection. Can a fire fighter say, “that’s good enough,” when a housefire is mostly extinguished? Can a surgeon say, “that’s good enough” when he knows he left part of an infected appendix inside the patient? What if the pilots on a passenger jet decided there was no need to run through the pre-flight checks the day you boarded the plane? After all, they ran those checks yesterday?
The Bible does not advise us to ‘do our own thing.’ Instead, the Bible offers two bits of counsel in our approach to work.
First, scripture counsels us to do our best, to do excellent work.
Second, scripture counsels us to react with grace toward ourselves and others when we fail in our pursuit of excellence.
I want to counsel you to go far beyond “Do Your Own Thing” or the “it’s Good Enough” ethic. Consider these people in the Bible who thought “Close Enough” would be acceptable:
Adam and Eve obeyed God for a while, perhaps hundreds of years. But then one day they did not, and were banished from the garden, Genesis 3:24.
Moses was told to speak to a rock for water, which he did, but he also struck the rock in anger and God punished him, Numbers 20:11.
Saul knew to eliminate the Amalekites, and he did—mostly—but he spared the king and some plunder and God promised to end his reign, 1 Samuel 15:8-26.
Good Enough is often not.
We must pursue excellence.
Consider Solomon’s construction of the temple. He obeyed the Lord in every point. This is a case of not only solid construction, but beautiful, artistic design. The large basin “stood upon twelve oxen, three looking toward the north, three looking toward the west, three looking toward the south, and three looking toward the east” 2 Chronicles 4:4. The record goes on to describe numerous items built of gold and brass, arranged in all kinds of beautiful designs, including two wreaths bearing 400 carved pomegranates, 2 Chronicles 4:13.
“Thus the work that Solomon made for the house of the Lord was finished, and Solomon brought in all the things that David his father had dedicated … and sacrificed sheep, and oxen, which could not be told nor numbered for multitude” 2 Chronicles 5:1,6.
And God showed his approval by filling the new temple with his glory:
“Then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God” 2 Chronicles 5:13-14.
Solomon did excellent work and God approved it.
But what if you fail? If you fail, there is grace.
Christians should strive for excellence. But we must forgive ourselves and others when we do not achieve excellence. We must extend grace to both ourselves and others. We are imperfect.
“Be kind and tenderhearted to one another, forgiving each other just as God in Christ has forgiven you” Ephesians 4:32.
“Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” Hebrews 4:16.
“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death” Romans 8:1.
Don’t be a slacker. Don’t do things half-way. Don’t adopt a ‘Good Enough’ or ‘Do Your Own Thing’ ethic. Instead, strive for excellence. Work hard and achieve something great.
When you fail as you will, forgive yourself, as you must.
AΩ.
[1] “Men’s freedom was often at the cost of women’s” –from https://www.museumofyouthculture.com/hippies/
Household Words: 