By Luke Paglia · Managing Editor
“Excellence is being able to perform at a high level over and over again. You can hit a half-court shot once. That’s just the luck of the draw. If you consistently do it … that’s excellence,” Jay-Z once said. While Jay-Z may not be the best person to take advice from, I have lived by this idea of excellence for most of my life.
In my family, I am the oldest child. For those of you who are also the oldest, you know that often comes with a lot of pressure. While most of the time it was assumed and not actually there, I felt pressure to perform at a high level in everything I did, set the perfect example for my two younger brothers, never let my parents down and be the perfect Christian son my parents were raising.
Let me say, that was exhausting. For many years, I played baseball. On all my teams leading up to high school, my dad was my coach, so he saw everything. Every practice, every game, I felt the need to perform exceptionally. Mistakes were not an option. I felt the need to be perfect. This was justified by the fact that I convinced myself I was pursuing excellence on the baseball field.
It didn’t end there. I played baseball for my first two years of high school as well, where the pressure became even greater because the competition became greater. This usually resulted in many nights of tears because of the stress that came from this, but again, that is normal when we pursue excellence, right?
I finally decided to stop playing baseball so that I could focus on academics. Of course, you would think that made everything better — no more stress from trying to pursue excellence in baseball by performing at the highest level. Wrong. It only got worse.
I began to find my identity in pursuing academic excellence. While it certainly is not a bad thing to care about and do well in school, when one’s whole world becomes engulfed by the idea that one’s value and worth are defined by the letter on a sheet of paper, it is no longer the pursuit of excellence.
Outside the classroom wasn’t any better. I was very involved with religious extracurriculars: FCA, youth group, church and serving. I did Bible studies, led groups and even shared a few messages. I seemingly had it all together and was working to pursue excellence in the eyes of God. Except I wasn’t; that’s what I wanted people to see. In reality, I was working to achieve more and “perform” at a higher level in these Christian circles.
I wish I could say that this all ended when I came to Grove City and magically understood what excellence really was. But that is not the case. During my freshman year, these false pursuits of excellence overran my life until it was just too much.
After much time, and prayer and counsel from others, I came to understand what excellence really was and how the pursuit of Biblical excellence is what we all ought to strive for.
The Greek word for excellence is “arete” and only occurs five times in the New Testament. That is because this word reflects the idea of excellence I have talked about this whole time, trying to perfect ourselves based on our own ability and achievement. The more commonly used Greek word when dealing with Biblical excellence is “telos,” which describes something’s purpose. In this context, pursuing Biblical excellence is recognizing that God has made us for a purpose, and moving toward that purpose is moving toward excellence.
I wish I could say I have perfectly achieved this mindset of excellence, but that would be me falling back into my old ways of trying to be excellent at pursuing excellence. What I can say is that when you lean on God, trust that He has a purpose for you and you work to fulfil that purpose, it is rewarding and brings so much joy, not the stress and anxiety that come when trying to pursue our own man-centered version of excellence.
As I opened with a quote from Jay-Z that poorly depicts what God intended excellence to be, I felt it would only be appropriate to close with God’s word to show his true intention. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them,” Ephesians 2:10.
