Mediocrity for the Win: Psalm 19

I’ll confess that I don’t even like the title for this devotional. I tried several times to come up with something else that wouldn’t make it look like I even knew how to think about or understood “mediocrity!” I’ll admit upfront that I’m competitive; I like to win. I like to do things right - the first time. I like for others to at least think that I know what I’m doing or good at what I do. 

I love to cook. I enjoy working in the kitchen with friends, preparing a wonderful meal, sharing stories and tasting as we add ingredients and spices. And the best part of all is serving up a meal for family, friends and strangers who sit at table together to enjoy a great meal! But don’t ask me for a recipe, because at best that’s where I started but it's nowhere close to where I end up. Afterall, if I followed the recipe, someone might see that I missed an ingredient or skipped a step in the process. They may expect it to taste one way and it end up very different! 

I love my woodworking. I am taken deep into my memories and cherish the thoughts of carrying on the craft that my father taught me years ago. When I smell the sawdust and fresh-cut wood in my shop, it is much like a balm to my soul and healing to my spirit. When someone asks me to make them a piece of furniture, I tell them that if they can find me a picture of something they like and give me the dimensions of what they want that I should be able to make them a nice piece. But you would be hard-pressed to find a plan with measurements, markings, instructions for how to build a cabinet, table or shelf just like the one in the picture. I’ve tried to make something “just like that” and it has never worked for me. So don’t send me a detailed plan - because I’d not want to disappoint you and make something that didn’t measure up to the plan or to what you really wanted from me. 

But tell me what you might like in the kitchen and then get out of the way and let me look and smell my way through the spice cabinet to come up with something that I’m pretty sure you’d enjoy. Tell me what kind of furniture or piece you’d like from my woodshop, step out of the way and let me be creative and work with the wood that is in front of me. Either way, kitchen or woodshop, when I trust in my own creativity; when I work with what I have available to me and use the gifts I have, I trust it will result in something pretty amazing - even if it might not measure up to the world’s standards. 

My challenge is to embrace and use the gifts entrusted to me by the Spirit. Your challenge is to do the same. And if indeed we use our gifts to add to God’s wonderful creation, then it will most certainly be “Mediocrity for the Win!” 

- William M Jewell