Obedience or Mere Excellence?

I've been reading "Everyman's Battle" by Arterburn & Stoeker, which is a great book that focuses on the battle that men go through to acheive and maintain sexual purity. I came across a passage that I found really profound. While this passage focuses on sexual purity, the principal can be applied in all areas of our Christian walk! Have a read:

Why do we find it so easy to mix our standards of sexual sin and so difficult to firmly commit to true purity?
Because we're used to it. We easily tolerate mixed standards of sexual purity because we tolerate mixed standards in most other areas of life.

Excellence or Obedience?

Question: What's your aim in life - excellence or obedience?
What's the difference? To aim for obedience is to aim for perfection, not for "excellence", which is actually something less.
"Wait a minute!" you reply. "I thought excellence and perfection were the same thing."
Sometimes they appear to be. But mere excellence allows room for a mixture. In most arenas, excellence is not a fixed standard at all. It's a mixed standard.
Let us show you what we mean. American businesses are in search of excellence. They could be in search of perfection - of course - perfect products, perfect service - but perfection is too costly and eats into profits. Rather than be perfect, businesses know it's enough to seem perfect to their customers. By stopping short of perfection, they find a profitable balance between quality and costs.
To find this balance, they often look to their peers to discover the "best practices" of their industry: How far can we go and still seem perfect? By how far can we stop short? Businesses find it profitable to stop short at the middle ground of excellence because perfection costs too much.
But is it profitable for Christians to stop short at the middle ground of excellence where costs are low, balanced somewhere between paganism and obedience? Not at all! While in business it's profitable to seem perfect, in the spritual realm it's merely comfortable to seem perfect. It is never profitable.
Clearly, excellence isn't the same as obedience or perfection. The search for excellence leaves us overwhelmingly vulnerable to snare after snare since it allows room for mixture. The search for obedience or perfection does not.
Excellence is a mixed standard, while obedience is a fixed standard. We want to shoot for the fixed standard.

Don't Fade, Faders!!!

As most of you who know me would know about the word that is loved by a few and hated by many.... Fade! I feel that this word is greatly misunderstood and it is my responsibility to take you back to school on this topic.

Fading is the verb, the noun is fader, and the adjective is fade. For example, "You are such a fader; your fading was done in true fade style".

Now, many people have different definitions of the word fade and I guess that is where the problem comes for those who are not well versed in the colloquial terms of the ebonic demographic.... So I'll help by giving you a general but not a totally exclusive definition of a fade. You have a fade when you have an expectation of a commitment and when that commitment is not fulfilled! The ambiguity arises in the definition of specific commitments as this is a very subjective parameter, as what maybe a commitment to one may not be a commitment to the next person but that person can is still qualified to be a fader. Fading is only judged by the person that used the word. For instance if someone calls you a fader because you have not fulfilled a commitment then you are a fader, whether or not you recognise that commitment or not!

While this may be a difficult concept for many to grasp once you get it you will hold on to it and use it any opportunity you have (LOL)... what is the moral of this random story? Just get with it and learn. People fear what they don't understand and hate what they can't conquer. All you haters out there, unfortunately this term is not going to fade. And since you can't beat us join us! (LOL!!!!)

Tales of a Blessed Man

Long time no see.... It has been a while since I've visited the land of blog!!! What can I say? Lots had been happening in my life since I last posted.... I had my computer die and come back from the grave all by itself, ran a 10 km race, went camping in the height of winter hiking 20 km through semi-raw wilderness, went ice skating for the first time, went salsa dancing, watched my first opera, saw a Motown show, had a return of a long lost friend, said goodbye to a few, struggled through a few things, laughed hard, had truck loads of revelations and found something really beautiful....

While I'd like to tell all those stories right now I think I'll savour them and slowly, relive some of these experiences again via my blog. All I can say is that I am truly alive and well! Enjoying life! Emersing myself in the blessing of living, of painting the portrait of my life and living it the way I want to remember it, continually on the search for something new! Seeing beauty in the mundane as well as the majestic.

The tales of a blessed man, coming soon....

Something SO Beautiful

Have you been on the top of a hill early in the morning and had the view obstructed by the fog? You know that somewhere through that cloudiness there is a beautiful view, something spectacular waiting to be seen. Often that fog doesn’t disappear all at once, it clears slowly as the sun rises until it is all, eventually, revealed! God has cleared the fog from my view! Now all I see is something Beautiful!

All This For A Piece of Paper

I am not one to go against the value of a good education but recently I had been thinking about what the point is of getting an education, and more specifically a university degree. It is weird how society puts such a high value on a piece of paper that you get after years of hard work and toil! As some of you might, or might not know, I graduated on the 17^th of April. And while I was very happy to be finally walking on stage to receive a piece of paper (that probably cost the university 20 cents to make) wearing ridiculous robes and a totally impractical hat, I couldn’t help but ask myself if this was worth the 20000 plus grand spent.

I really battled myself over this one… As most of you know, I’ve been now working in my first graduate job for about two months now and I have to say everyday I have been learning something new. The sad thing is I use very little of the knowledge I learnt from uni. So I have to wonder what the point is if I could have come straight from high school into my current position and just learnt on the job from there. Is there a need for people with degrees and does the fact that you have a degree make you a better option than someone without one?

Well… I have to admit that a degree is no way to judge someone in terms of ability and suitability, for some jobs. Meanwhile having a degree is a powerful tool. While the knowledge you gain from uni may or may not help you in your future career it is still invaluable. You see, the thing I learnt about university is that it is not so much about all the knowledge you acquire but, it is about how you think. Universities breed thinkers, people willing to challenge status quo. University is not there to fill your mind with other people’s options but rather teach you to develop your own. Not only through lectures and tutorials but through intellectual interaction with your peers.

This is what I valued about uni. All the different people I met from different culture, nations, religions and backgrounds. That is something many people who didn’t go to uni didn’t get the pleasure of experiencing because many get caught up in their small worlds and never venture out from there. University life is a world of its own where different worlds clash and seamlessly blend into one. Uni is more than assignments, tests, lectures, exams and holidays, it’s a learning and growing experience! I guess if you ask me now, in retrospect, whether I thought uni was worth it, I’d probably simply say, “It was the best time of my life!”