Tuesday, March 11, 2008

 

How Will They Know Series

Matthew 13:44 “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field.” 

 

An Extraordinary Life

 

It is easy in life to settle for mediocrity but God calls us to do better than just good enough.   I’ve done some research on Debbi Fields.  Debbi was a young housewife who created the most successful cookie empire in the world.   She did this by sticking to her beliefs and following the dream of her own heart.  

 

She wrote in her book, One Smart Cookie,  that she walked in one of her stores unannounced and noticed a batch of cookies laid out for her customers that weren’t up to her standards.  These cookies were flat and over-baked.  A perfect Mrs. Fields cookie is ½ inch in thickness.  These cookies, she wrote, were a quarter inch.     A perfect Mrs. Fields cookie is three inches in diameter; these appeared to measure three and one quarter inch.   They were also a little more golden brown than they should have been.  

 

The idea of a perfect cookie helped her build from a single store to 1,000 stores worldwide.  The company had a well-earned reputation for providing the best product quality and great customer service.   Any cookie that sat on the shelf more than two hours was either donated to charities or sent home with customers as a gift.    Her name became a worldwide brand.  

 

That batch of cookies early on in her career as she went into that shop that day set a standard in her life.   She could have sent out a corporate memo re-emphasizing cookie size and color, but she didn’t.  She did something much more powerful and symbolic: I turned to the young man standing next to me and said, “Taste this cookie and tell me what you think about them?”   “All he said was, “They’re good enough.”  She took that tray of cookies and about $600 of other cookies in the store and slid them gently into the garbage can.  “You know,” Debbi Fields said to him, “good enough never is.”    

 

God does not want us to have a tolerable life doing sufficient things with passable results and OK relationships.    God wants us to have extraordinary lives and never be happy with just “good enough.”    In our lives we must never settle for just “good enough.”

 

Jesus lived an incredible life.   He changed everything by showing the real value of living.   He invested all that He could in teaching people the value of living and of seeking after the kingdom of heaven.   Life is worth the risk.  One of my favorite mini-parables is from Matthew 13:45 “the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls.  When he found one of great value, he went away sold everything he had and bought it.”    When we discover the extraordinary quality of life, when we know for sure that God has a treasure in life just for us - then we seek out what is absolutely the best and we live it.   

 

You see, “good enough never is.”    God intends for us to be and have what is extraordinary.  

 

Prayer:

Dear God, help me to live an incredible life.   Amen.