I Did My Best – Part Two
Ask yourself at the encroaching end of the day, “Did I do my best?” So live as to earn a sterling “Yes.”
Always have God in your heart, set goals and seek challenges; do your best in whatever you do; become a role model for those coming behind you. Your task may be small or great, but your accountability should be constant.
Northwestern University in Evanston, IL once had a volunteer life saving crew which was trained to rescue people in Lake Michigan. A passenger ship, “Lady Elgin”, was wrecked in a storm. A young student at Garrett Biblical Institute saw a woman clinging to a piece of wreckage far out in the breakers. He swam out and brought her back to safety. In the process he saw others. He continued to swim out and bring in others. His name was Spencer W. Edwards. After rescuing 17 he lay exhausted and near delirium on the beach. He kept questioning, “Did I do my best? Did I do my best?” When his brother told him he had rescued 17 he said, “If only I could have saved one more…”
When life nears its end and you straight-line you will have reason to ask, “Did I do my best?” So live that after your life’s last breath you will hear a calming voice say, “Well done good and faithful servant.”
Did you hear the operative word, “Servant.” That is what we are. You may labor on the payroll of a company which is your employer. However, in that role you are God’s servant. Live that in the aftermath of each day you have cause to say, “I did my best.”
You may be a domestic engineer, normally called a housewife, but in that role you are God’s servant. Servants all!
Michael Jordan, basketball’s GOAT, said, “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life, and that is why I succeed.” (In case you don’t know the meaning of GOAT, it means “Greatest Of All Time.)
Every person may have more failures than they might like to admit, but don’t quit doing your best.
Show yourself grace and laugh at yourself. Don’t beat yourself up for what you couldn’t do, or didn’t do. Just do the best you can at the time.
In a parable Jesus told of three servants whose master was to be away. He gave each servant a different amount of money. When He returned He asked for an accounting. Each was accountable only for the sum given him. The amounts varied, but the accountability was the same. Don’t be preoccupied with another, just live as to know you did your best.
Whether you invent it, write it, saute it, clean it, crochet it, fly it, govern it, or plant it, do all to the glory of the Lord that you may garner the epithet, “I did my best.”