Good Enough

Settling only for the best version of yourself

02/28/2022

Mk 10:17-27 As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up, knelt down before him, and asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus answered him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; you shall not defraud; honor your father and your mother.” He replied and said to him, “Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth.” Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, “You are lacking in one thing. Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” At that statement, his face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.

Have you ever heard the maxim “the good is the enemy of the best”? Why is that? Well, because sometimes we settle for what is good – because we feel it is “good enough” – instead of pushing ourselves to achieve the best. As Matthew Kelly likes to say, you should seek “the best version of yourself.” But sadly, many of us settle for second best, which is another way of saying “good enough.”

I will never forget how Coach Nick Saban of the Alabama football team articulated the difference between good and best. He explained his approach to football practice saying: “We don’t practice till we get the play right. We practice until we cannot get the play wrong.” Did you catch how Coach Saban does not settle for “good enough” but rather reaches for the best his players can possibly perform? He wants his team to understand that "the good is the enemy of the best.” And that is one reason Nick Saban holds the record for the most college football national championships with seven titles.

In the gospel Jesus has a conversation with a young man to whom he tries to teach the adage: the good is the enemy of the best. The young man seems eager to do more, not to be complacent, he does not want to settle for second best. When Jesus tells him to keep a handful of commandments, he answers eagerly: “Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth.” At that point Jesus turns into a spiritual Nick Saban, and says: “You are lacking in one thing. Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”

But suddenly, the "good" of material possessions turns into the enemy of the "best" of spiritual possession,s and the young man’s desires are deflated. Just like many eager college football players give up after one week of practice for Nick Saban, so this young man went away sad because he had many possessions. That young man was willing to practice till he got it right, but he was not willing to practice until he could not get it wrong. His good had become the enemy of his best.

My friends, this Wednesday we begin the holy season of Lent with Ash Wednesday. Let me sort of “prime the pump” as we approach this season of grace by inviting you to think of how good things in your life can become the enemy of the best things in your life. In a sense, Lent is the time to step up our spiritual exercise and to practice not just till we get a few commandments right, but until we cannot get any of the commandments wrong. Do you want to win the National Championship at Easter or not? That should be the question in the back of our minds for the forty days of Lent.

And notice, too, that it is surprisingly the good that is the enemy of the best and not necessarily the bad, the sinful or the evil. The spiritual life, in other words, is not always a simple and straight-forward struggle of good versus bad, light versus dark, angels against devils. Sometimes, it is the naturally good things that keep us from supernaturally best things, and as a result this struggle is hard to see. This Lent it is precisely the good we must attack, those things we call “good enough” or “second best” which are really just excuses for our laziness and not seeking the best version of ourselves.

I don’t know if you are a fan of Alabama football or if you like Coach Nick Saban (he is a Catholic, by the way). In fact, in 2020, when a reporter asked if Saban was going to watch the College Football playoff selection on television, he answered: “I go to church from 11 to 12, so they’re going to have to either schedule it at a different time, or I’m going to find out when I get out of church.” In other words, Nick Saban doesn’t let the good of football become the enemy of the best which is Mass.

Praised be Jesus Christ!