More Than Mediocre

My closest friends and I have this joke going about being mediocre. I don’t remember how it started but we literally say it to each other all the time.

Someone announces they’re skipping class in the group message? #mediocre we say. Someone else is complaining about having to get up and do something? #mediocre again. Sometimes we flat out admit that we don’t feel like being anything but mediocre that day.

While for the most part, this is a joke between us, it got me thinking.

Mediocrity is such a common thing. Most of the time we don’t really see anything wrong with not doing our best, not pushing ourselves to be the best that we can be.

We aren’t doing or being all that God has called us to be.

I don’t know about you, but that thought sent me to my knees. The Lord can use us in so many different ways but how often do we get too lazy or scared to do more or to be more?

There is a very real battle going on in the spiritual realm everyday. The enemy fills our heads with doubts and fears and shouts of, “You can’t do it”. So we settle for mediocrity. We don’t live to our fullest potential, and we certainly don’t do all the things the Lord is calling us to.

“The sluggard does not plow in the autumn; he will seek at harvest and have nothing.” (Proverbs 20:4)

“The hand of the diligent will rule, while the slothful will be put to forced labor.” (Proverbs 12:24)

“The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.” (Proverbs 13:4)

Proverbs is filled with verses about mediocrity; actually, the bible doesn’t even use the term “mediocre”. Instead “sluggard” or “slothful” are used as the descriptions. A sluggard is defined as a person who is “habitually inactive or lazy”. I don’t want to be thought of as a lazy, fruitless person, y’all.

To put it bluntly, as my friend Kelsey said, “Jesus didn’t die for you to be mediocre.”

Honestly though, He didn’t. Each of our lives has purposes beyond what we could even come up with and God wants to use you so badly. He loves you and created you for so, so much more than what a lot of us are settling for. We have to spend time in the word and in prayer, preparing ourselves so that we can be ready to jump into the opportunities the Lord gives us every day.

“Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits will have plenty of poverty.” (Proverbs 28:19)

“Prepare your work outside; get everything ready for yourself in the filed, and after that build your house.” (Proverbs 24:27)

One of the biggest desires of our hearts should be to please the Lord. Above all else, I want to please Him with everything I do. Put aside what other people might think. Who cares? God has called us to be so much more than mediocre, friends.

“When a man’s ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.” (Proverbs 16:7)

I’m done settling for mediocre, are you?

#mediocre #sluggard #slothful #prepare