1 Minute Daily Devotions
February 10, 2008
Slight Edge
"Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you receive from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God...that you excel still more." - 1 Thessalonians 4:1
Every time the Olympics comes around, I'm always amazed at the small difference in time between the winner of the gold and the other competitors. It's called the slight edge. In some races, it will be a difference of just hundredths of a second. Yet, we remember the winners and tend to forget the ones who didn't win a medal.
In the game of life, so often the difference between being an also-ran and the winner is that slight edge. The difference between being average and great is just a little bit of difference, just a little extra effort.
Because life is a challenge for us all, I urge you to think about a personal relationship with God to find that slight edge for living. Faith in God provides strength and character to give us just the little bit of extra required to have a successful life. What a difference in the end between being average and being great.
Comments on this Devotion
From Jonathan on Feb 11th:
This basically implies to be great, to get that "extra edge", you have to believe in God. Why can't people see this is BS? Maybe a belief in Shiva also gives an extra bit of juice. How about atheist Albert Einstein? Non-believers like Adous Huxley, Darwin, Hemmingway, Benjamin Franklin, Carl Sagan, Bertrand Russell, Billy Joel, David Suzuki, Isaac Asimov, Christopher Hitchens, Jodie Foster, Linus Pauling, Galilei Galileo, Nietzsche, Robert Frost, Van Gogh, Thomas Edison, Freud, and 90% of today's scientists, didn't need God to make them great.
From RICK on Feb 11th:
THIS PASSAGE TELLS ME THE WAY I SHOULD WALK DURING THE DIFFICULT TIME IN MY MARRIAGE
From Janice on Feb 11th:
Jonathan, You named some people who have had outstanding achievements and are well known and great in your eyes however you have failed to see that they could not have been great at all had not God chosen to include them in His creation. My question is how much greater would they have been if they had acknowledged that their talents were given by God and were not of their own making? Perhaps they would have had even greater accomplishments to help mankind had they devoted their talents to God's work.
From Jonathan on Feb 12th:
Janice, they would not have been as great for they would have spent considerable time studying the Bible, going to church, and not perfecting their knowledge and skills. The suggestion that "God chose them" to be great is an error, and has to do with their genetic make up and enironment, and nothing to do with being chosen by god. A first year university course in biology and psychology should clear this up for you.
The assumption here is (great - average) = god, which is nonsense. That's like 9-7 = i (an imaginary number). (Great - Average) = intelligence, hard work, education, organization, getting enough sleep, eating right, not drinking too much, working with others, being kind to others, exercising, learning, reading, ambition, a desire to learn, a desire to achieve, talent, and a world view. The extra edge doesn't come from sitting down in church one hour per Sunday. Once again, the religious answer, the religious argument, is not helpful, misleading, and incorrect.
From Jonathan on Feb 12th:
Besides Janice, the bias here is that you are only taking credit for positive variances. What about all those God-believing pious souls who are below average?