Saying No To Good Things
Good is the enemy of great... Few people attain great lives, in large part because it is just so easy to settle for a good life. - Jim Collins There is a moment in the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus is tempted by the Accuser (the literal translation of the word Satan) to do good things, rather than great things. He's tempted to: turn stone into bread rule the world perform impressive miracles The Accuser's temptations are strong. In one fell swoop, Jesus could solve the problem of hunger in the world, blow everyone away with how powerful he is (which would remove all doubts about him), and then basically take over the world and fix all the political, economic and social ills of the day. Instead, Jesus refuses to do what seems good in favor of what is great. He pushes back against the temptation to affect one particular moment in history, in order to fulfill his calling to change all of history and to bri...