The Enemy Called Mediocrity

Recently I preached a message called The Enemy called Mediocrity in church. The message was God's specific word to me for the year 2013. It felt like He was preaching to me! He was screaming at me and scolding me to get my butt off my sedentary lifestyle and live my life to the full; to empty myself of all that He had deposited in me so that I don't go to my grave full. I dare say my life hasn't been the same since that day and I feel I must put this message up somewhere where it can be accessed and read by someone... someday... Who knows, by reading this, your life might receive that same dramatic change mine did. Below is an excerpt from that message: 

Mediocrity means moderate to inferior in quality; lacking exceptional quality or ability; having undesirable or negative qualities; not very good or great, ordinary, average, second-rate, insignificant.

Mediocrity is a silent, yet deadly enemy of man’s destiny and purpose; many fall into its trap at some point in life for various different reasons and if care is not taken they end up leaving the earth buried with it. It is an enemy that allows one to settle for less than God’s best for our lives. It takes root deep inside of us and causes us to accept every voice contrary to that of God and His promises for us. 

There are so many truths, promises, blessings that are stored up for us in God’s word and when God sent man into the world He equipped us with everything we need in order to fulfil his divine purpose. 2 Peter 1:3-4. God’s divine purpose for us involves us partaking in a divine nature, walking in authority, living an exceptional and extraordinary life. It involves us being like stars and living like kings and priests. Yet very few of us have even tasted that nature not to mention living daily in it.

 “Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them. With major, it had been all three" [Joseph Heller Catch]

So how are some born with it? When parents are already neck deep in a life of mediocrity, they tend to transfer it to their children; the children are told right from birth that they can never achieve much and they accept it and don’t bother making any effort to do otherwise. Most people in this category die long before they can see even an express road not to mention the four walls of a classroom. Those who manage to venture and accomplish more hardly ever go far due to the generational ties that hold them back from progressing beyond where their parents have reached. Only the divine intervention of God and a renewal of their minds can break them free. 

E.g. Jabez (1 Chron. 4:9-10) – His mother named him “pain” because she bore him in pain. All his life anytime someone called him, they were saying “pain” and knowing the importance of names in a man’s life, this could have affected Jabez greatly all through his life. However he chose to do something about it; he cried out to God and God granted his request. 

When we say some achieve mediocrity, they do this by allowing themselves settle into it after seemingly achieving a certain level in life. They manage to cross that express road, graduate from school, get a job, marry, have kids, and then “settle down”. They believe they have arrived or they feel that where they are is the best they can ever be in life and so they relax, selling themselves short of God’s divine purpose for their lives. 

We're told that Jabez was ‘more honourable than his brothers’, which can be interpreted to mean he was more respected, maybe even richer than his brothers. However, he was still dissatisfied with his “honourable” position. He knew there had to be more to life than what he had and so he cried out for that more and God heard him.

Then there are those who have mediocrity thrust upon them. These are those who have become handicapped physically, mentally or spiritually by various challenges, bad experiences, and setbacks in life. Life has just dealt them a bitter blow; each turn they take leads them to another disaster. It seems as if there is no way out. They begin to believe God has forgotten and forsaken them and so they cannot see anything positive about life anymore. Everything about them suddenly becomes negative and pessimistic. The man at the pool of Bethesda (John 5:2) – He had an infirmity for 38years and remained in one spot for that long, waiting for someone to help him into the pool. He accepted his fate and wasted 38years of his life when he could have done something about his situation. Imagine what would have happened if after one year of seeking and not finding help, he started shifting slowly towards the pool, just an inch a day on that floor where he lay? I’m sure in at least one year he would have been close enough to push himself in and be healed!! Maybe he would also have gotten the sympathy of some passers-by who may have seen his determination and offered a helping hand. But this gentleman was so deep in his mediocre life that even when Christ came to his rescue, he couldn’t even admit he needed help, rather he wallowed in self-pity. Sounds familiar?

On the contrary, Job also had mediocrity thrust unto him; he had no more hope after he had lost his entire life in two days, he concluded that God had forsaken him. He began a long lamentation; cursing the day he was born. Job 3:1-6. There is no record of how long Job remained in the hopeless state of mourning and lamentation before God heard him. He could very well have settled down to a life of mediocrity, an ordinary, insignificant life and he could have even cursed God and died as instructed by his wife and he would have been justified. However in chapter 9, we see him extolling the most High God. He encouraged himself in the Lord, accepting his fate and a puppet in the hands of a master craftsman. And God heard him and restored him.  

What category do you find yourself? What is it that life has thrown at you that would make you live an ordinary and average life?  Can it be worse that Jabez or Job? There is no declaration over your life that can be final until you accept it! Once you accept the word, it becomes you. Prov 23:7. Once you accept that the gifts of the spirit are for certain other people and not you, so will it be. Once you accept that you cannot do more than own a bicycle, so will it be. If you believe you can never lend to nations, you won’t! It’s as simple as that. You are what you think in your heart so start thinking and dreaming big, start challenging God to twist your story around just a little bit, start seeing yourself as an achiever, get your butt off that complacent and sedentary lifestyle and start living your best life now.