Is the way you rate your success getting you into trouble?
Bible Reading: Philippians 3
How do you rate your performance in your career, ministry, marriage, business or any life endeavour? Let me remind you of what we do. A 100m athlete may tell you that his best timing was 9.8 seconds; most times this timing was achieved some months ago. An employee will remind you of a very challenging assignment he finished well before the deadline. Some pastors will tell you about their most fulfilling moment – how they preached a powerful message many years ago and several people became believers. In short, most people rate themselves based on the best thing they have done in the past.
Good! You have wonderful ratings if we are to scroll through your past. But the last time you did that same thing, how well did you do it? Is your best performance still dated far into the past?
In an Olympic competition, if an athlete came first during the preliminary selection but on the day of the final selection, he was last, he will not even be opportune to contest for a medal. Whether we choose to accept it or not, that’s the way life responds to us. Most times, our last performance has the greatest significance and may even rubbish all the other good performances of the past. Therefore, it is better to rate your last performance as your best performance.
I mean in your marriage, your best show of love is not what you did during honeymoon; it is what you displayed today. Your relevance to your employer is not too much of how well you used to deliver, but how you are handling your current assignment. Mr. Pilot, you may have a good flying record, but your passengers onboard are concerned about reaching their destination safely. Thou minister of God, rejoiceth thou over thy past exploits? As I write this piece, I am not focused on how well my writings have blessed many in the past. This is my last (best) performance and I want you to be motivated to take a step in the right direction after reading this piece.
Once you rate yourself based on your last performance, it helps you to give your best to the present and sends a positive errand to all that is in you, saying … “Do it better this time”.
Oh my God! I believe Apostle Paul got it clear like no one else. He said in Philippians 3:13 (GNB) – “I really do not think that I have already won it; the one thing I do, however, is to forget what is behind me and do my best to reach what is ahead”. The present connects the past to the future. Therefore, he is doing his best today. Imagine like Paul that you do not have any memories of the past; that means your best is NOW!
Beloved, forget the best performance of the past, give your best to today’s performance … better than the past, rated as the best.
– tope aladenusi
