In everything be and do your best!

Matthew 13:44-52

Jesus said to the crowds, ‘The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field which someone has found; he hides it again, goes off happy, sells everything he owns and buys the field. ‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls; when he finds one of great value he goes and sells everything he owns and buys it.

  

‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea that brings in a haul of all kinds. When it is full, the fishermen haul it ashore; then, sitting down, they collect the good ones in a basket and throw away those that are no use. This is how it will be at the end of time: the angels will appear and separate the wicked from the just to throw them into the blazing furnace where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth. 

‘Have you understood all this?’ They said, ‘Yes.’ And he said to them, ‘Well then, every scribe who becomes a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out from his storeroom things both new and old.’

Food for thought!

Jesus is again teaching. He has two lessons for us today. The first, diligence in whatever we do pays. The man in the first parables found the precious thing, not so much by chance, as in his day's work; he did so when he was going about his daily business; he must have been going about his daily business with diligence and efficiency; he must have been digging deep, and not merely scraping the surface, in order to strike against the treasure. This means that in order to find joy and satisfaction, we must love what we do and must do what we love. So, do you love what you do for a living, and do you do what you love?

Diligence is many things. It is assiduousness, constancy, perseverance, endurance, fidelity, industriousness, insistence, laboriousness, persistence, staying power, stick-to-itiveness. Be diligent in your daily routine. Don't let the routine destroy your diligence. In everything be and do your best!

In the second parable, there's another teaching. While the first man was digging the field as a daily routine, when he stumbled on unaware on the treasure, the man in the second parable was actively searching for pearls. It means, this man was actively looking for something greater, something more. He was not complacent. Complacency means being self-proclaimed, self-satisfied, self-congratulating, self-content. So, Jesus is saying that we be not complacent with what we have achieved so far. There's much more we can be and do. 

Jesus is saying that we stop not with our current achievements. Stopping means dying because when we die we stop living, we stop dreaming, we stop progressing. Don't die before you die. Live until you die, dream until you die, search until you die. Be like the man in the parable, keep walking and working more, keep going for more, keep improving.

Jesus is saying in other words, that whatever we do, let's be and do our best. In order to achieve great things, do the small ordinary things extraordinarily well. Become the big fish by mastering the small pond. Succeed in the ordinary and you will qualify yourself for big ones. Be like the athletes in the Commonwealth Games, before they went to Glasgow, the must have performed very well at home. If you are good at home, you will be good elsewhere; if you fail at home, you'll most likely fail elsewehre; bad managers or bad employers and employees are always bad spouses; before they fail at work, they fail at home.