“How long did John Smith work for you?” a former employer was asked.  “About four hours” was the quick reply. “Why he told me that he had been there for some time.” “Oh yes”, answered the gentleman, “he was here for two years but you didn’t ask that, you asked how long did he work.”

Someone else observed that many people quit looking for work as soon as they find a job. This is true. On the other hand, some people would do anything to be able to do nothing.

One of my favorite examples of sheer laziness is contained in the story of an old mountaineer and his wife who were sitting in front of the fireplace one evening just whiling away the time. After a long silence, the wife said: “Jed, I think it’s raining. Get up and to outside and see.” The old mountaineer continued to gaze into the fire for a second, sighed, then said, “Aw, Ma, why don’t we just call in the dog and see if he’s wet.”

Excellence requires hard work. The lazy need not apply.

Genesis 1:31 states, God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. Not just ”good”; very good!. The word “good” is found seven times in Genesis 1. It seems as if the Lord not only wanted it recorded that He worked, He also wanted it known that His work was GOOD. Actually the word translated “good” means “rich, better or excellent.”

The word “work” is no stranger to Scripture. In fact, the word is found 372 times in The New International Version. Solomon also wrote in Proverbs 18:9, “One who is slack in his work is (a) brother to one who destroys.” Ecclesiastes 9:10 adds, Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might….

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- New Life Assembly of God Church in Janesville, WI

Are you willing to be more than you presently are? Are you anxious to excel? Is striving for perfection a nice thought or a living reality with you? Excellence for a Christian should be more than some distant dream. It should rather be our daily aim; our lifelong pursuit. Simply put, the Apostle Paul told the church of Corinth to “aim for perfection” (2 Corinthians 13:11).

Tim Hansel wrote, “Our hearts beat excitedly over stories of people like Abraham and Moses, yet we fail to recognize that they were as frail and nervous as we are. We stand in awe of Moses at the burning bush: “Now there is a bush that burns,” we say. “I would like to be a bush like that, but I’m just a heap of ashes.” And that’s as far as we get. We discuss the phenomenon of what God can do in a life, tell amazing stories about it, praise it–but then resign ourselves to being nothing more than what we think we are, a mere bystander, resigned to sitting in the balcony among the spectators. But it is not the bush that sustains the flame. It is God in the bush, and so, any old bush will do!

The shocking message of the Bible continues to be that God has chosen the least suspecting of all vessels to do his greatest work. What counts most is who and what are you willing to become? See that scruffy-looking bush over there? That bush will do. See this funny-looking bush over here? It will do, too.”

Hansel, Tim. 1987. Holy Sweat. Waco, Texas. Word Books. p. 31

The point that Hansel attempts to make is this, God is still on the lookout for bushes. He is on the lookout for anyone/anything through which He can manifest His excellence. Again, are you willing to be such a person?

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- New Life Assembly of God Church in Janesville, WI