By Demetrius Moffett

What is excellence and what does it look like? I believe that most of us would have a similar definition and view of what it looks like.

However, when it comes to our performance, excellence truly becomes relative.

Dr. Monica A. Frank depicts the pursuit of excellence as “the desire to attain a goal of excellence, to achieve at a high level, to be the best that one can be but without the demand attached to the goal or desire. Pursuing excellence may require tremendous effort and focus as well as other resources.”

In pursuing excellence, one has to guard against the thought process of trying to be perfect.

Perfection is hard to accomplish and even harder to maintain.

As we are pursuing the quality of excellence there are two prominent components that are paramount. They are excelling and exceeding.

Excelling is to be exceptionally good at or proficient in an activity or subject.

Exceeding is to go beyond what is allowed or stipulated by a set limit, especially of one’s authority.

Perfection may be the end goal, but the quality of excelling and exceeding is the true character of excellence. With excel and exceed as the driving force to pursuing excellence, it’s in the planning and preparing not performance and presentation that excellence is birthed.

I’ve found that there are not many people who enjoy the planning and prep phases to achieve a goal.

It’s the celebrating of the performance and presentation that are most attractive.

When we don’t perform in a way that is excellent how often do we truly look at whether we excelled or exceeded our best in the preparation phases? When it comes to our walk in Christ, are we expressing good qualities or excellent qualities?

When considering our Christian lifestyle, excellence is excelling and exceeding in living and serving in the illumination and impartation of God’s will and desire of a new creation.

Are we excelling and exceeding in our study of the word? Our prayer life? Our desire to see souls saved? Or are we satisfied with the status quo? As long as we wear this fabric called flesh we shall never be perfect, but we can exercise a pursuit of excellence.

Excel and exceed in preparation and performance will exhibit excellence. For excellence came from excellence, walked among non-excellence to secure non-excellence with a sacrifice of excellence so non-excellence would have an opportunity to exhibit excellence to excellence.

 

Demetrius Moffett is Senior Pastor of Orange Church of God, 1911 North 16th Street in Orange.