Wednesday, February 7, 2024

Holy Shoddy Is Still Shoddy

In 1976, when I began teaching at Biola, I took two classes form the Christian Education department: College Teaching Procedures, and Tests and Measurements. In the former class, a textbook by Elton Trueblood was required reading and I'm sure glad it was! 

In this book, the author made a statement I will never forget: "Holy shoddy is still shoddy." Your life will change when you realize that what we do for Christ should always be done with excellence. Notice I didn't say "perfection." You can never do anything perfectly. But if you can perform excellently most of the time, it can make up for the many times when you're not perfect. A true perfectionist is someone who is always striving to get better. It's doing enough to get the most out of my efforts. If your attitude is, "I won't do it unless it's perfect," get rid of it. On the other hand, let's not swing the pendulum in the other direction where quality and pride in our work are absent, because that's nothing but a slippery slope to mediocrity. 

Strive for excellence and not perfection!