The Tyranny of Mediocrity

Post written by Aaron Bouwens.

One of my least favorite phases to hear come form another persons mouth, or even worse mine is, that is good enough. It seems there is a tendency by the people called the human race to settle for something which is good enough. We know there is better and best still out there. It is easy to see that something worse has already been surpassed. We simply settle into the place where things are not excellent but they are not bad. This place has a name, mediocrity.

In my dream world mediocrity would not exist. It would seem odd that someone would not strive for the absolute best they can. This is not the world we live in, as if I needed to tell you that. Mediocrity is well established in our ways of life in everything from mowing the lawn to our marriages, to our relationship with God. In fact mediocrity is so well established that when an attempt is made to rise above it, the majority try to pull things back. The mediocre majority cannot allow someone to break ranks and put excellence back on the map. When people decide they are just not going to get by any longer, but they are going to thrive, great concern is raised. There is something hauntingly comfortable about mediocrity which holds us hostage.

I wonder what happens if people break free? What happens if people decide to not allow the mediocre majority to exercise tyranny over them any longer? This is where greatness emerges. This is where great works of God are initiated. Have you ever noticed that we do not have a God of mediocrity? Our God puts forth excellence in everything that is done. We do not find stories of God going half way with something. Can you imagine is God would have decided Jesus’ death on the cross was good enough, and forgo the whole resurrection thing? We are to offer the best of who we are and the best of what God has made of us, at every moment. Good enough should not be a part of our lexicon.

So how do we change ourselves and the tyranny? First comes a choice to give more into life. Remove halfway from your line of thinking. In everything you do, pursue perfection. Are we going to be perfect every time, probably not. Our imperfection should not however, keep us from excellence and the best we have to give. In the movie The Last Samurai, Tom Cruise narrates a section saying, from the moment they wake, they commit themselves to perfection. That is it. If we are to overcome the tyranny of mediocrity, we must be on a pursuit of perfection.

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