One of the most important choices you make every day is not the choice between right and wrong. That’s important, but it’s base level.
The real choice is between good and great.
Are you going to have a good marriage or are you going to have a great marriage?
Are you going to settle for dating a good person or wait for a great person?
Are you going to raise good little boys and girls or great men and women of God?
Are you going to meet the minimum requirements at your job or are you going to set the standard with your greatness?
Unfortunately, it seems like most Christians never make the leap to that level. They stick to right and wrong, never realizing that it’s entirely possible to live a right life in a wrong way. And in turn they sacrifice the great on the altar of the good, not understanding the truth:
You could not have an affair but still have a mediocre marriage.
You could not have sex before marriage but still settle for less than God’s best when choosing the person you marry.
You could not hit your kids but fail to truly raise them.
You could be a good person, but still live a shadow of the life God intended for you.
When you scan the Bible and the people God used greatly, for many of them it was not a decision between right and wrong. But good and great.
Abraham was a good man. If he stayed home, he would have still been a good man. But he wasn’t choosing to be good. He was choosing to be great. And that’s what he became.
The same is true with Moses. David. The disciples.
On the negative side of this, you have the rich young man in Matthew 19. He had done everything right. But then Jesus upped the ante and told him to sell his possessions and follow him. Abandon the good for the great. The man couldn’t make the leap, and he went home sad.
I don’t see a lot of Christians trade in their divine destiny for things that are ridiculously evil. As Pete Wilson has said, what I see is a lot of Christians trading it in for things that are deceptively good.
The rich young man went home sad. Most of us go home satisfied. Satisfied with good. Satisfied with right.
Don’t settle for that. Start there, but don’t stay there. God has more in mind for you than good.
It’s time for us to move past good and move on to great.
