Surely
everyone is a super-achiever in one sense – there is bound to be
some tasks that they have utterly mastered. I am, for example, a
super-achiever at eating and sleeping. I am very accomplished at it
and it is not hard for me to do at all. There is another sense,
however, in which I am a super-achiever at nothing. For the question
always arises even for those tasks that are easy for me, am I really
doing my best at it? From this point of view in regards to eating I
have much to learn – to eat wisely and well actually proves to be a
significant challenge not only in terms of knowledge but also of
will. So even in the common task of eating, the preferred stance is a
humble one – I have much to learn and overcome, and I should look
at it from the preferred perspective
“that-slow-and-steady-wins-the-race.” Considering oneself a
“super-achiever” always raises the question whether one's sites
are sufficiently high. Effort and faithfulness to one's calling alone
become the final test of character. As Robert Browning put it: “Ah,
but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?”
And Jesus said: “From everyone who has been given much, much will
be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much
more will be asked" [Luke 12:48]. In this sense, no one dare
fancy themselves a self-appointed super-achiever, and to judge others
as such puts us inevitably in the judgment seat of God.
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