I stood with a 20 something yesterday and said that the best is the enemy of the best. We bantered about that for a while.
The beginning rebuttal was that the good is the enemy of the best. I totally understand that idea. We live in a society where “the good” is not as defined in ancient days. For us, the good is just a way of saying, “getting by.” By implication we mean that we are doing a lot less than God would require. But we are able to maintain some sense of equilibrium and willingly let this be sufficient for our lives.
Of course, when we are able to push past “the good,” we often find greater fulfilment in life. “Push past” is the operative phrase, or in today’s jargon, “go to the next level.” Unfortunately we are finding that going to the next level may be as much a step down as a step up.
Back to the best as the enemy of the best. For those who have consistently striven for better, we are finding that we want more than competence for our lives. In fact, some days we approach a new situation (for that is where the best is best demonstrated), and we find that we’ve “been there, done that, got the T shirt.” Since we don’t need to do this over again for the sake of proving ourselves, why would we overdo ourselves to go to the “next level?”
And perhaps more importantly, have we really defined “the best” properly? What if the best is being unorganized? What if the best is just living with other people? What if the best looks like failure?
What if the best is really a mix of giftings amongst a group of people where we spur each other on to love and good deeds, but don’t demand that all our love and good deeds look the same? What if we really are here to glorify God (let others peak into who God is and just enjoy God ourselves), to love others and to know when that is the best we can do?
Your thoughts as I cogitate (a great little word that just means to thing about) on this idea would be appreciated.
Good thinking ! We all have such a tendency to be “copycats”, it is a pleasure to see or do something unique or unexpected !
Quite frankly, I reread your blog and actually got a little lost !! Maybe some peoples idea of the “best” is really the best for them. I don’t know ! I am still trying to figure it out !
I think the best for today becomes the enemy when we lose hope or fail to see that there is room to explore more, do it better, or improve on how things are done.
“That’s the way we have always done it’ become one huge rut in life.
I think I would personally find it very depressing if I concluded that today’s best is the best that I could possibly be or do.
My grandmother used to say – if you do not learn something new each day, you might as well be dead. I know she believed that tomorrow was always another chance to do better.