Do you ever have a moment within the humdrum of the day, where you see something extraordinary? Something that is not unusual, but at the same time, it is nothing like “the usual”?
My family acquired the National Geographic channel for a trial period through Dish Network, and I’ve been watching nonstop for the past two days. Every image that comes up on the screen is breathtaking BEAUTY. We don’t have an HDTV television, but I can only imagine the difference it would make. According to their website, they have the most rigorous Standards & Practices department in television. It certainly shows. Excellence is a wonderful thing.
The concept got me to thinking. How can I embody the kind of excellence that sets me a part from ‘the usual’? How can I maintain a lifestyle that make other people see something extraordinary in me? So, I did a quick search for the word “excellence” in BibleGateway. 2 Peter 1:3-11 came up, as though it were the very answer to my question. (Don’t you love when that happens?!)
By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.
In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.
The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins.
So, dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen. Do these things, and you will never fall away. Then God will give you a grand entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
-2 Peter 1:3-11
