I have been thinking about how if you are keeping up with the Jones’s you are doing just fine. While thinking, because that is what I do, I thought Joe wrote something on this topic and I found it.
I don’t mean this in a cynical way. As a matter of fact, I think it’s encouraging. So many times during the day, I focus on what could be or the “best” things in life, forgetting to be thankful for the mediocre.
But isn’t it the mediocre that sets the standard for the ‘best?’ Maybe I’m just lazy and looking for the easy way out, but if everyday, all day was as great as I sometimes wish it could be, then all those days would really just become normal by comparison. Right?
Anyway, it seems more to me that good days and bad days are largely a state of mind. Not something you can toggle like a light-switch, of course. But something you have to work at and pray about in advance.
On the whole, I’m thankful that mediocre is the one setting the pace.
I see mediocre as middle of the line. Does not fall too far to the left or right. Does not push too far ahead and does not fall behind. Just stays in the middle of the road that way life is stable. I would say a majority of people find themselves in the middle of a mediocre life. Nothing to exciting or dull. Just doing life. Joe says that “mediocre sets the standard for ‘best’”. Which is correct in you can not judge best with out people to compare yourself to. The problem is usually people do not look up the chain, but down the chain.
My issue is not people that live here, but the people that think that if I am as good as so and so then I must be doing okay. The issue is that people that see a child molester, murder, terrorist, or druggy and think “thank God I am not like that person.” If you are a person that looks at the lowly and down trod in society and think that, then you are not judging yourself fairly. You are taking the easy way out. You are judging yourself by the lessor which in turns makes you stay mediocre. Mediocre people tend not to judge themselves by those that are doing great things.
I heard of a man that felt a burden to help those that have been effected by natural disasters in America. He sold all that he had, bought equipment, and now he and his family finds where the worst storms are and head that way. He give of all he had to help other people. I find that when I compare my self to him I am lacking in helping my brothers and sisters in America. When I compare myself to the other 10 cars around my that will not acknowledge a homeless person on the corner and I give him as dollar like I am doing great.
I hope you are catching on that if we do not put people in our lives to challenge us to move beyond mediocre and strive toward great we will all fail to live up to our potential. What potential you may ask? The potential and standards God has given us in the Bible. The works that will not be destroyed or counted as worthless in the end.
Mediocre maybe setting the pace, but does that make it right? I would say no because mediocre people and lifestyle are becoming worse and worse. Anything that causes us to slip backward either alone or with the majority is not better. It comes down to what are you measuring your life by others or the person that is ultimately going to judge your works and deed on earth. Just because you are doing as okay as “so and so” does not mean you are doing okay.
“We must overcome the notion that we must be regular…it robs you of the chance to be extraordinary and leads you to the mediocre.” Uta Hagen