Receiving a B
A professor stood before his class of 20 senior organic
biology students, about to hand out the final exam.
"I want to say that it's been a pleasure teaching you this
semester. I know you've all worked extremely hard and many
of you are off to medical school after summer. So that no
one gets their GPA messed up because they might have been
celebrating a bit too much this week, anyone who would like
to opt out of the final exam today will receive a "B" for
the course."
There was much rejoicing amongst the class as students got
up, passed by the professor to thank him and sign out on his
offer. As the last taker left the room, the professor looked
out over the handful of remaining students and asked, "Any
one else? This is your last chance." One final student rose
up and took the offer.
The professor closed the door and took attendance of those
students remaining. "I'm glad to see you believe in
yourself." he said. "You all have "A's."
Too often, we're content to settle for second best. A lot of
students would be thrilled to settle for a "B" ("That's
better than I usually get." "That's doing better than most
of the others I know."). And most students, I think, would
rather get a "B" with little time spent studying, than to
make the effort it takes to get an "A".
A lot of us are content to settle for second best in our
spiritual lives as well. We're close to God (at least closer
than many people we know), but we aren't willing to take the
time and the effort to have the kind of relationship we know
God wants us to have.
The biggest problem with settling for second best is that we
miss out on that which is best.
"As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a
village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him.
She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet
listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all
the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and
asked, 'Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to
do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!' 'Martha,
Martha,' the Lord answered, 'you are worried and upset about
many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen
what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.' "
(Luke 10:42).
What Martha was doing was good (second best, even), but
"Mary has chosen what is better." May we always seek out and
choose "what is better" in our relationship with God!
Alan Smith www.TFTD-online.com
Thanks to thought-for-the-day