How often have we said to ourselves or even out loud, “That’s good enough.” Essentially what we are saying is, “It is not worthwhile to invest anymore effort; this will do for the time being.” We are willing to settle for the state of things as they are and not willing to invest any more time, treasure, or talent to produce a better outcome or product. I have lived with the results of such decisions from time to time throughout my life. One such situation concerned a 1956 Chevy Bel Air coupe which I wrecked when I was 16. Thankfully the car was not totaled, and my friend and I were not injured in the accident.
The car, while drivable, had some serious body damage. The additional bad news was that my parents disciplined me by saying they were not getting the insurance company involved. I was responsible for the repairs. My first step was to take the car to a repair shop to get an estimate. A buddy had assured me he knew of a body shop that was the cheapest around. What a wake-up call! The news was not good. I was bowled over by the “reasonable” estimate. I started to negotiate with the body shop owner to see what repairs could be made to make it “good enough.” How about a used door instead of a new one? Was it possible to pull and pound out the fender instead of replacing the mangled one? Could I supply parts I found by searching the junk yards down by the river? Would cans of spray paint cover up the damage? The repair shop owner finally settled on a price estimating the cost of what he would do, and I agreed that I would do the rest. The result I hoped would be good enough. After a couple of weeks, the car was repaired as agreed upon and I was left with a “good enough” product that was far from good enough. I got that for which I had settled – a patchwork car that announced to the world that it had been in an accident! What made matters even worse is that the car, when mentioned, bore the label – “Bobby’s car.”
How often in life do we make the decision to settle for the “good enough” rather than aim for the best? How many have relationships that are assumed to be “good enough” but not the best they could be? Who has chosen to give a few minutes to someone assuming it is “good enough” when what they really needed was time for our undivided attention? How many have looked at investing in developing their walk with God and concluded their meager effort was “good enough” until you have more time in the future? Will there ever be more time than the time you invest right now? How often have we made plans to address a bad habit or sinful practice and concluded our intentions are “good enough.” Perhaps it is better to realize that you can be more than a conqueror as you rely upon Christ’s power and the control of the Spirit to break free of those bondages (Romans 7:18-8:1, 5, 37). Perhaps you could add many other scenarios where you settle for the “good enough” and not strive for the best.
Oswald Chambers in his devotional writing “My Utmost for His Highest” concludes, “The great enemy of the life of faith in God is not sin, but the good which is not good enough. The good is always the enemy of the best.” Putting it in my own thoughts, “Don’t be satisfied to settle for good enough.” The “good enough” is not only dissatisfying, but it can also be dangerous. I thought of this one time when I was delayed boarding a scheduled airplane flight. The garbled message over the public address system indicated that the flight was delayed because the mechanics were seeking to further inspect one of the instruments on the airplane. At first, I was annoyed. Upon further consideration, I was glad that I had a ground crew checking out the airplane that was not giving a pass on the airplane’s condition saying, “It’s good enough.” They wanted to be assured that the airplane they were inspecting was the best it could be for the safety of the passengers and their own peace of mind. Realizing this, my aggravation melted away.
The Apostle Paul is an example of a person who was not willing to settle for life that was “good enough.” He writes in Philippians 3:12-14, “I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved… or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.” Paul could claim many achievements in life as he described them in previous verses. He never concluded however that they were “good enough.” He did not settle – he kept moving toward the best that he could be because of the work of God in his life. Like him, we must press for the best, not for the “good enough.”
