Thank God for diversity and thank God for convenience. When my hours are long at the office and I don't feel like preparing a meal at home, take out restaurants are indeed a blessing.
The custom at Chinese restaurants is to receive a fortune cookie with each meal — even take out. I recall that not so long ago, the pieces of paper found in these fortune cookies contained Chinese proverbs or sayings. Lately, though, they have had a distinctively Western ring to them. Often I don't read them, but a few weeks ago as I enjoyed a Chinese meal at the office late one afternoon I decided to read the fortune cookie I had received. One side read: "Learn Chinese" with the Chinese word for Orange, and the pronunciation (chéng). On the other side was the "proverb": "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit." How true I thought, we have to practice excellence. Excellence doesn't just happen. There is nothing casual or lukewarm about excellence. We have to be intentional about excellence.
Excellence requires that we get out of bed half an hour earlier, (not a pleasant thought at this time of the year) that we practice with an eye towards accomplishment, improvement and growth. We can only say "It'll be alright" when we have prepared ourselves, when we have put in hours of practice and preparation. This is true for the Olympic athlete, the artist, the actor, the singer, the instrumentalist, the writer, the preacher. It is also true for every member of Christ's church. In order to move towards the perfection that is our goal, to be like Christ we must practice being like Christ, every day in every way, not just when others are watching. Excellence must become for us a habit doing all things well. This is especially true when we are gathered as a community that is representative of the body of Christ. All worship leader — liturgists, ushers/greeters, Sunday School teachers, choir and congregation. Let's make excellence our habit.
Pastor Laurel