Doing Our Best

The Epoch Times had an article today by Tatiana Denning on the topic of "The Benefits of Doing Our Best, Even in Adversity." The article begins with a quote from Martin Luther King Jr.:

“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven played music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.’”

Denning explains that being the best and doing the best are two different things. She contends that being the best involves competition and comparing ourselves against others; "[i]t requires focusing more on the outside world, and less on the inside one." Conversely, "[d]oing our best means giving our all, and going about whatever we endeavor with our whole heart. No matter how hard the task may be, it’s important to strive forward with focus and determination." Denning continues:

       David Erichsen, on his website Lifehack. says, “Doing your best is synonymous with living out each and every moment to its fullest potential. And this potential exists in every situation you encounter in your life. All that is required of you is not to fight whatever life throws your way.”

     Doing our best is a virtue. It not only fills us with a sense of accomplishment but serves to strengthen the good things in us. It takes resolve and determination, focus, and perseverance, as well as a great deal of self-discipline. Things such as patience, honesty, ingenuity, and being thoughtful and considerate of others are also required. And sometimes, it even involves blood, sweat, and tears.

      Some of the most successful and well-respected coaches in sports, in whom many of these qualities can be found, understand this. They know that even in competition, core values are vitally important, things like hard work, self-sacrifice, and thinking of others.

I'm not going to say that we should abandon competition or trying to be the best as it is a necessary part of the masculine to compete. But when it comes to life, God isn't going to be judging us on whether we were the best, but whether we did our best as the article describes. Paul spoke of this in Colossians 3, writing:

22 Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God:

23 And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;

24 Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.

(Underline added).