Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king thought to set him over the whole realm. Then the presidents and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom; but they could find none occasion nor fault; forasmuch as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him.
Daniel 6:3-4
In 1976, Henry Kissinger published White House Years, a memoir of his time in the Nixon Administration. There were accounts of many meetings with foreign leaders of the time and Kissinger’s evaluation of them. There were also a number of personal stories. Kissinger told about a professor from his time at Harvard who collected papers from a writing assignment. One of the students received his back the next day. At the bottom of the page the professor had written, “Is this the best you can do?” The student after reflection decided to rewrite the paper and turn it in again. The second paper was marked with the same question. Again and again he redid the work. The tenth time he handed it directly to the professor in person and told him, “This is the best I can do.” The professor replied, “Fine, now I’ll read it.”
Every task that we have, no matter how large or how small it seems, deserves to be done to the best of our ability. Someone said, “Even if the task is not worthy of you, diligence is.” A half-hearted effort in anything is a poor testimony for those who carry the name of Christ. Doing just enough to get by is not the standard we should set for ourselves. God is a God of excellence and perfection, and while we will never be perfect in this life, we should strive to do all that is set before us to the highest level we can achieve. Our efforts to be excellent are not to impress others or to gain glory for ourselves, but to reflect positively on the God we serve and worship.
