Called to Excellence

Excellence.

It's a word the Lord has been bringing to my mind over and over this year.  Excellence in all we do is a core value for us as a Mission; it's an idea I've been familiar with for a long time.

That makes sense considering what NTM does.  We want to see people come to understand God's story, become part of His family, and function in their community as believers.  We focus on areas, on people groups, that have had limited or no access to the truth of the gospel.  Learning another culture and language - understanding how they see the world - is imperative.  We need to know how to communicate effectively, because we have an incredibly important, life-changing message.

Of course that takes excellence.  There's no room for sloppiness when you're teaching or translating the Word of God, or when you're training new leaders in a local church.

When I was in Senegal, it was easy to see the importance of excellence in what we did.

What meaningful ministry or discipling could take place outside of relationships?  And how could we have those relationships unless we fully invested ourselves in the process of learning?

So I put my nose to the grindstone to learn French (a language I was not at all fond of at the time).  I studied, prepped, and reviewed.  I read and re-read our program's learning guide.

I saw the fruits of that.  I saw it play out both in my life and in others' who were learning alongside me.  To the extent that we put whole-hearted effort into learning this new language and culture, we experienced deeper relationships and understanding.

Then I moved back to the States and transitioned into ministry at one of our Bible schools.

I found myself in two official ministry roles: managing our guest house and working in the business office.

Both were entirely new to me, and the learning curve has been steep this year.  Learning inevitably involves making mistakes - a reality that rubs my perfectionist soul raw.  I couldn't wait to reach a point where I wouldn't be making mistakes, where I wouldn't have to ask so many questions, where I could do my job exactly the way I was supposed to.



In grappling with this elusive idea of perfection, and the harsh realization that I would never fully reach my ideal, the Lord began to bring another word to my mind.

Excellence.

Not perfection, but excellence.  That's what He wants from me.  I am human, yes, so I will make mistakes.  But I can have an attitude of striving to do things to the very best of my ability.

Here, it looks different.  The motivation seems a little less obvious now.  I'm not learning another language and culture so I can share His truth with people who have never heard it.

I'm working in an office, overseeing the day-to-day running of a guest house and handling student accounts.  It's mundane, unimpressive, and hardly seems to have any spiritual significance.

But it's not the greatness of a task that calls me to excellence; it's the character of God that calls me to excellence.  (Colossians 3:23; Ephesians 6:7)

Our God is not a sloppy, careless, half-hearted God.

Suppose He cares less about what I'm actually doing and more about how I'm reflecting who He is?  Suppose discipleship is less about big, exciting opportunities and more about being faithful in whatever He puts in front of me?  Suppose my impact is tied, not to geography or job descriptions, but simply to whether I am willing to to put my whole heart into living this life He's given me?

I have watched others live this out, taking their work seriously and seeking it to do it well.  Not just good enough, but really, truly, well.  Their examples have encouraged me and caused me to realize that it does matter.  People are watching me.  Watching us.  We have an opportunity to reflect our God and cause others to look at Him, simply because we are doing the work He gives us whole-heartedly.

So this my goal: to do the work that I have to do with excellence.  Even if it means time and effort and more uncomfortable learning curves.  Even if the tasks I do are small and unnoticed.  Even if answering emails and checking guest rooms and preparing to lead discussions and keeping documentation all seem far removed from reaching people who have never heard about Jesus.

Can I challenge you, too?

Let's let God cultivate in us hearts that press toward excellence in all we do, hearts that reflect His, lives that model truth to those around us.

Let's allow what we know about God to shape how we live, in even the most mundane details.