Good, the Poison of Excellence
When people are asked questions like, how’s everything going, how’s your family, your school or work? We constantly hear the answers like, good, no complain, etc.
Good is a state of mind in content with quality, quantity or degree. The self-complacent mind stops our curiosity to search for something new, creative and great. It paralyzes our passion to grow better and achieve excellence. It would be perfectly fine if only we stay in such a state for a little while as a break and reflection on life. But it will be the poison of excellence if we stay there for a long time without any contemplation.
The fairy that a little mouse eats rice in a big jar well illustrates the risk we put us in a good state in life. One day a little mouse jumped in a big jar full of rice, the bad luck turns out to be a good luck to him because he can enjoy the rice by himself without putting any extra efforts without any competitors. He is so excited and feels so good about where he is. He eats the rice day after day then sleeps at night and enjoys an easy and comfortable life. Gradually the rice becomes less and less until the mouse realizes he has nothing to eat any more but only see the bottom of the big and tall jar. All of a sudden, he realizes he needs to get out of the jar in order to live. However, the jar is too tall for him to jump out of it. And he can do nothing about it.
What the story tells us, many times our life seems in good state and peaceful, however there is risk behind it and it comes gradually and unnoticed until we are stuck in there and there is no way out.
Jim Collins wrote in his book, Good to Great, that good is the enemy of great is not just a business problem, it’s also a human problem.
As Christians, when we are in spiritual good state, we are lukewarm. Revelation 3:16 states, So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth. God does not want us to be in state of good and being lukewarm.
When God does not want us to stay in a good state, he usually takes off the things that keep us feel good so we can be transformed into the state of great. The transformation is disguised into problems that destroy our comfortable zone, we then experience trials of frustration, struggles and misery or we call it a time of the adversity. God does this with a great purpose to push us to go extra miles to the land of excellence because he knows the good is our roadblock on the way to our fullest. The God of loving will not keep us in the misery state forever instead he will lift us up and direct us to new solutions and make us become great and achieve excellence. Remember good is the poison of excellence. Be alert not being in the state of good too long.
