Mediocrity

In the philosophy of science, there is a principle that says there is nothing especially privileged about Earth, and therefore nothing especially privileged about the human race. It is called the “Principle of Mediocrity.” Ever since we learned that Earth is not the center of the universe, this idea has helped humble our sense of where we stand in an immense cosmos.

That kind of humility can be healthy. But as Christians, we have to be careful not to let it curdle into a spiritual inferiority complex.

When we forget that we are precious in God’s eyes, and that He has entrusted each of us with a place in His kingdom, we fall into a different kind of mediocrity. It creeps in when we doubt our worth, measure ourselves against everyone else, bury our gifts, or decide our talents are too small to matter.

A saying attributed to G. K. Chesterton describes mediocrity as standing before greatness without recognizing it. That is the danger I see here: we can overlook what God has placed in our hands because we believe we are too insignificant or limited to make any difference.

Mediocrity can also show up when we split our faith into pieces. Sometimes we focus only on the spiritual and ignore the practical. Other times we live for the practical and forget the spiritual. But Jesus never lived a divided life. His compassion reached bodies and souls, tables and temples, people’s hunger and people’s eternity.

Psalm 139 (NIV) reminds us that God knows us and has been involved in our lives from the beginning. Knowing that gives us a responsibility to use what He has entrusted to us.

So to every Christian, I want to repeat the message of a song we used to sing in fellowship: “You are capable of moving forward; you are capable of reaching the goal; God made you, He knows you, and He knows… that you are capable.”

Step out of the shadow of mediocrity. Not because you are the center of the universe, but because the God who made the universe has called you by name.