Posted on: Saturday, March 19, 2005

EXPRESSIONS OF FAITH
No regrets if you do your best

By the Rev. Dennis Mendoza

My wife, Vivian, and I recently watched "Remember the Titans," an excellent and entertaining movie.

The movie was set a few years before my high school days, and it brought back vivid memories of playing football.

Running wind sprints, doing up-and-downs, throwing up from exhaustion, the thrill of victory, the camaraderie, singing songs with your teammates and respecting and obeying your coach.

I remember thinking way back then as we prepared to enter the stadium and go to war with the opposing team, "Dennis, you have to do your best on every play so you will have no regrets."

Years ago, Adm. Hyman Rickover was interviewing Jimmy Carter for a job, long before Carter became president.

Rickover asked him the question: "Did you always do your best when you were in school?"

Carter knew he could not in clear conscience say "yes." So he told him, "No, sir, I did not always do my best."

Rickover's reply inspired Carter to seek to do his best.

Sometimes Christians, myself included, do not do our best. We do shoddy work. We're satisfied with mediocrity instead of raising standards or seeking to be a standard of excellence. We settle for just doing enough to get by.

Yet the Bible exhorts us to strive for more. We read in Colossians 3: 23 & 24, "Whatever you do, do your work heartily as for the Lord rather than for men; knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ who you serve."

One day in the future, all Christians will stand before the judgment seat of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:10). May we strive to do our best each day in whatever we do and thus have no regrets.

By the way, what was Adm. Rickover's reply to Jimmy Carter years ago?

"Well, why not?"

Why not do our best for him today?

The Rev. Dennis Mendoza is pastor of International Baptist Church in Honolulu. Expressions of Faith welcomes written works from pastors, priests, other leaders in faith and spirituality and lay people. E-mail faith@honoluluadvertiser.com or call 525-8035. Articles submitted to The Advertiser may be published or distributed in print, electronic or other forms.