Excel

Apparently the word excel refers to being superior or surpassing someone or something. Although I have done the competitive thing in sport from time to time, I am not big on being competitive.

Yet if there is someone I compete against often, it is myself. Recently I recognised that I have been tremendously blessed in so many ways. I am also aware that the blessings are for a reason.

2013 was a better year for me than 2012. I ended it with much to reflect on in terms of positive developments. As well as that it was impressed on me that I should do better. I can be more efficient and as a result more effective and thus more fruitful.

This is not about self-determination and the power of my will. This is a desire to give myself over to God’s pruning, so that I can be fruitful.

There is also my reflection on the first story we come across in the book of Daniel. Here the titular guy and his three friends choose not to defile themselves. They find favour with the main overseer and get to trial their specific diet and they are shown to excel both after the trial and after the three-year course. It’s illuminative to me to see how men who pursue godly purity excel. It’s a hint to me that pursuing the godly model of purity seen in the focus of faith, Jesus Christ, I can truly excel.

Evidence of excelling can be observed by others. It is, however, essentially the change in the inner man as it becomes conformed to the image of Christ. That has communal consequences as well as individual.

That is the driving desire and my key goal – for His honour and His glory, I want to excel.

For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden