The good is always the enemy of the best

I love love love the book My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers. I've been reading it pretty much nonstop since 2001. I took a year off in there somewhere to read a different devotional, and quickly went back to it. One of my favorite quotes is from the May 25th entry, and though I know it is not even close to May 25, this quote and idea have surfaced again in the last few weeks of my life:

The great enemy of the life of faith in God is not sin, but the good which is not good enough. The good is always the enemy of the best... Many of us do not go on spiritually because we prefer to choose what is right instead of relying on God to choose for us.

Wow. "The good is always the enemy of the best." How many times have I seen that proved true? There are so many things in life that are good, they just aren't God's best for us. One thing that has really struck me this week is that even though I am living in an affluent area of the United States, I do not cease to be surrounded by need. What's tricky here is that it's not financial need or very often physical needs. It's not as obvious as an Argentine orphanage or slum. But there is still a cry from people who have so much, and yet they are empty. Their good is falling so short of best. It's so easy when I am here to start to believe that somehow things that are good- technology and clothes and even experiences like travel- will somehow satisfy me, instead of trusting in God's best and remembering that many of the happiest days of my life were when I actually had the least stuff.

But good isn't just material stuff. Everywhere we turn we are making decisions and choosing paths. And at every juncture there is a God who loves us deeply, more than we could know, and He knows what is best for us, even if it doesn't look that way to us. The truth is, the very best thing in all the world is to know Jesus. And whatever in life brings me closer to Jesus, that is what is best for me. That's the goal, always. Know him more. Because we cannot worship or glorify that which we do not know. The more I know about Christ the more I can praise him, trust him, and adore him. That's why we consider it all a loss for the sake of knowing Jesus Christ, because there isn't anything better.