People talk a lot about “being your best self” and “doing your best work.”
Those are, in a lot of ways, ideas I can get behind. Solomon said, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going.” (Ecclesiastes 9:10). We get one go-around in this physical life; there’s no sense wasting time with shoddy, half-hearted, lazy work. If you’re going to do it, give it everything you’ve got.
But I also have a problem with these ideas of “best self” and “best work.” I think they can easily become shields that we hide behindâexcuses to stop doing work altogether.
It happens to me a lot.
There’s no telling how many words I’ve written in my life. I do it for my day job at work, I do it for my side project here. Whatever the number is, it’s a big one.
But there’s also no telling how many words I’ve backspaced or crossed out. How many papers I’ve crumpled up and tossed aside. How many half-finished files I’ve left alone in some abandoned folder because they just weren’t coming together the way I wanted.
Even though I love writing, it is work. And I always spend at least some of that time in my own head, doubting what I’m doing.
Is this my best work? Is it good enough? Am I good enough?
And there’s the trapâbecause it can always be better. Always. And from a purely objective standpoint, only one single project in my entire life’s anthology will really count as my “best work,” and I have no idea what it is or if I’ve even written it yet. I won’t know the answer to that question until after I’m dead. So the questioning and hemming and hawing and self-doubt winds up accomplishing very little, because the secret to any project is never being your best self and doing your best work.
The secret is showing up.
That’s as complicated as it needs to be.
It’s enough to show up and do good work. Consistently. Over and over again. That’s where growth comes from. That’s where progress comes from. Consistency in the things we find important.
And in the process of all that, we wind up producing our best work and developing our best selves. But asking ourselvesâinterrogating ourselvesâover and over about whether what we’ve done and who we are is our absolute, inarguable best is an absolute, inarguable waste.
“Do it with your might” doesn’t mean “make it a masterpiece every time.” It means give it your best shot. Show up and try. It doesn’t have to be perfect, it doesn’t have to be the best thing you’ve ever done.
Show up. Do good work. Move forward. Lather, rinse, repeat.
“Best” is an ideal. It’s what we’re chasing after. We “go on to perfection” (Hebrews 6:1)âit’s not where God expects us to be every step of the way. That’s not how this works, and we sabotage ourselves if it becomes our expectation.
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But there’s another aspect to all this. Showing up is the secret, yesâbut we can’t show up for everything, all the time.
There’s too much. Try and show up for all of it, and you’ll accomplish none of it.
So we pick and choose instead. We have to decide what we’ll show up for. And that’s true for everythingâin our professional lives, in our home lives, in our hobbies, and most importantly, in our spiritual lives.
Bible study? You have to show up for that.
Prayer? You have to show up for that.
Meditation, fasting, fellowship? You have to show up for all of them.
But it doesn’t need to be your best Bible study every time. Or your best prayer. Showing up consistently is so much more important than doing something excellent every once in a while. And the great big ironic paradox is that waiting for your work to be excellent is the best way to keep it from ever being excellent. We get there by showing up. One step at a time. One day at a time. Choosing to be there for the things that matter, choosing to try rather than hiding and waiting for the kind of perfection that’s just beyond our reach.
Paul tells us, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58).
The Greek word for “abounding” means “overflowing.” We are to be steadfast, immovable, and abounding in the work of the Lord. We don’t get there by waiting and hoping to become our “best selves” and do our “best work.” We get there by overflowing in our dedication to show up and try.
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You might be wondering why Sabbath Thoughts has been inactive for so long. Last week’s post was the first new post since August of last year, and it’s only one of three that I’ve written in the past 365 days.
There’s a long answer and a short answer.
The long answer is that it has been an absolutely crazy year. Our van broke down and needed major repairsâtwice. We had colds. We had COVID. Our waste line clogged and floodedâtwice. The first time ruined the flooring in a third of our house, so we replaced it on our ownâslowly, over the course of multiple months. Between two kids, we worked through potty training and sleep training and sleep regressions and all sorts of developmental milestones. We made multiple road trips to visit family. We signed up to help out with an assortment of other projects. It’s been a lot.
The short answer is that I was busy showing up for other things. And for the most part, I don’t regret those other things (except for maybe a few late-night Netflix binges). I made the choice to take care of other things, to spend more time focused on family, and to use my limited cache of spare time on other hobbies and projects. And in all honesty, I was getting a little burned out. I kept telling myself I’d get back to writing Sabbath Thoughts, but every week that went by without writing a new one made it easier and easier to let it go for another week, and another week, andâŚ
All the same, it serves to drive home the point that you make progress on what you show up for. I stopped showing up for Sabbath Thoughts, and the site got stagnant. Something would have been better than nothing, but the longer I spent away from it, the more pressure I felt to make sure the first new post was “worth it”âwhatever that means. I wanted it to be my best. Every time I tried to write something, it was never quite what I wanted it to be. Never quite good enough.
And so here we are.
I want to start showing up for this site again. It means a lot to me, and many of you have expressed that it means a lot to you, too. I don’t know if that means a new post every week, but I’m going to try to make sure something goes up every weekâeven if it’s an older post. They might be shorter than usual, they might not be as insightful as I want them to beâI don’t know. But I do know that I want to show up consistently, because this is something worth showing up for.
I might not be able to offer you my best self or my best work, but I do know this:
I want to show up and try.
Just thankful to read your words when they come . You have a gift and I appreciate it and you
Thank you đ
Ditto.
Thanks for showing up! Missed you.
Thank you! Itâs good to be back at it đ
Thanks for sharing a part of your journey Jeremy. You were missed and itâs a treat to read your articles. We are your family and we understand that life gets tough at times.
Aw, thanks! Much appreciated.
So wonderful to hear from you again as I’ve missed you and wondered if you and your family were okay.
Hope I didnât give anyone cause to worry! Weâre doing well, but life is definitely keeping us busy. Life with two little ones is a lot different than life with one!
Thanks Jeremy. Sabbath Thoughts has always been an inspiration for me. Looking forward to seeing something here more frequently.
Thank you! Looking forward to writing more frequently!
So glad you’re back! I searched for you, thinking I must have gotten off your email list but couldn’t find any new posts. Thank you for your blog. You inspire me and so many others.
I had a few people ask if there was something wrong with the email list. Turns out the problem was just a lazy writer đ Glad to be back!
It’s great to have you back! I have missed your insightful and encouraging articles. May this year be a less stressful one for you and your family!
That would be nice! Iâll settle for just being better at handling the crises that come up, though!
I am glad you are back. I appreciate Sabbath Thoughts. I am an artist and I have been neglecting drawing and painting all winter. I need to get back to it and “show up”. Thanks for the inspiration!
Yay! Enjoy getting back into the swing of it!
I have yet to read anything you’ve written that wasn’t worth showing up to read. đ Thank you for sharing your gift with us and the time and effort that goes into it.
Thank you đ
Thank you, Jeremy. I’ve really missed your Sabbath Thoughts and figured you must have your hands full. I’ll be so happy to read it each time you are able to publish it for us! Have a great Sabbath!
Thank you for the kind words! Happy Sabbath!
Welcome back Jeremy, we missed Sabbath thoughts a lot. At one point, I thought I had unsubscribed, I checked my subscription status and found everything was fine…. Last week was likean illusion when may email was hit with a new ST….
Once again, welcome back and your articles are so inspirational and practical. I personally learn a lot from them in my spiritual journey, which is the most important journey of all.
There were a handful of people who were worried about that. Glad to be able to put the concerns to rest đ Thank you for the kind wordsâI hope I can continue to write helpful things!
Inciteful and encoraging; write, rewrite. (Your GIFT!!!!!) Your thoughts fit my work perfectly today, setting a post in concrete for a gate. I love perfection, and I did the best I could. Perhaps because I put so much effort into projects—Yahweh may protect that work in unexpected ways, letting me know He appreciated the effort. We KNOW He responds!
I think weâll be surprised one day when God shows us all the ways Heâs intervened in our lives without us even noticing! Happy Sabbath!
I am so glad you are back. Sabbath Thoughts itâs always been an inspiration for me. It helps to keep me centered and focused on God and his wonderful plan. Thank you again!
Thatâs so encouraging to hear, thank you! Happy Sabbath!
Very timely Sabbath thoughts. Thank you very much for writing this đ
Thanks! Happy Sabbath!
Hello Jeremy – greetings from New Zealand. Really appreciate your pieces and particularly wanted to thank you for “the overview effect”. Such distressing times and hard not be overwhelmed with grief. Will study Habbakuk more thoroughly or next couple of days. We have to find the balance.
Thanks for the kind words! Habakkuk is such an interesting bookâI always find encouragement when we get examples of Godâs servants being up front about their own emotionally-charged inner wrestlings. The book feels like it boils down to, âGod, I trust You, but I donât understand thisâeverything about it seems wrong! Why are You doing it this way?â And even though he never gets a clear answer, God never faults Habakkuk for asking, either. Lots to learn from that book!
Hi Jeremy
Enjoyed this Sabbath Thought, it hits home for me, I do this a lot in my drive for perfection, I to am learning to step back and prioritize. Thanks Sandy
Glad to hear it was helpful! Have a great Sabbath!
Thanks, this was so encouraging. It helps knowing others struggle with this.
Thanks! I think a lot of people struggle with this and similar thingsâitâs just hard to know how to talk about it sometimes. Happy Sabbath!
Jeremy, your Sabbath thoughts are a special treasure to me. I looked forward to them every Friday night. You gave me so many things to think about and a few laughs along the way. I really missed your messages and Iâm so thankful your back. Thank you for your labor of love. Brenda from Pittsburgh,Pa
Thank you for the kind words! Itâs good to be back! I didnât realize how much I missed writing it until I started it back up again. Happy Sabbath!
Thank you for every time you show up! It always is helpful and like good seed l, it keeps growing. I often think about your thoughts for many hours.
I also know that life happens and things need to be done. So thanks for giving time to Sabbath thoughtsđ
Thanks for the kind words and for understanding! Iâm so glad Sabbath Thoughts have been useful for you. Have a great Sabbath!
Always remember, the words you write each week may be the words one or many of your readers needed to hear. So keep sharing your gift
Thank you very much! Iâm glad for the opportunity to serve đ
What a blessing to find Sabbath Thoughts again! Thank you for âshowing upâ! I have watched and waited hoping and praying that you would âshow up againâ! Thank you!
Humbling to know there were prayers for this, thank you! Excited to be back in the saddle đ
Thank you. I have always struggled with not being good enough. Reading your post helped me see I’m not alone. It has been a weapon formed against me. Your insight brought light to the dark place. God bless you and your family.
I think quite a few people wrestle with that! Youâre definitely not alone đ Glad this post could help!
Thank you for sharing yours and your family’s journey for the past year or so! You were immovable and steadfast in carrying on inspite of the challenges that came!
Thank you! Living through it didnât exactly feel that way, but I appreciate the thought all the same!
Shalom thanks for sharing and thank you for showing up I love reading your post I posted on my Facebook page for others to read
Happy Sabbath! Thank you so much!
Jeremy, thank you so much for sharing with us! Your podcasts, articles, Sabbath Thoughts, example, dedication, faith, just warm my heart. Everything you do is so helpful and insightful to us as we all walk in the path to righteousness and onto perfection at Christ’s return. Youband your family are much appreciated đ
Thank you! Mary (and even the kiddos) are such huge sources of inspiration for me; I donât think I could do any of it without them đ
Jeremy,
“Hello!” to the family, and welcome back!!
Mrs. Mongbeh
Thank you!
Thanks Jeremy. I always enjoy your work and this one is no exception to that. Claudia always forwards to me and I’m glad to be reading them again. For what it’s worth I’d like to share a “saying” of mine I’ve used for years. Don’t know if I heard or read it from someone else or just my own thoughts, perhaps inspired by Eccl. 3:9. “Anything worth doing is worth doing right.” That was pretty much my Dad’s work ethic.
Solid advice! Thank you for sharing it! đ
Welcome back! Hope everything is going well for you and yours.
Thank you, Jeremy, for all your sacrifices and for sharing your journey with us. I join you and others in giving thanks to God for bringing you through all that you experienced last year to the present time. It is easy to put into words but quite another to live through! Even though many of us missed you, we are glad that you were able to balance life and be there for others (including your family!) and take some time for yourself. Everyone needs a break now and then. We are quite content to be able to access previous Sabbath Thoughts that God might wish to send for us to review. No pressure as the saying goes. Is there a way to put another link where we can access them?
Good to have you and Sabbath Thoughts back. I was worried. I kept going back to the last post I received, also around the the time your article on the breakdown of the whole armor of God in life, hope and truth post and thought perhaps something went wrong with my email. I kept writing to find out but the emails weren’t delivered according to Google and no response from you while trying to connect with you….. And then 3 days later to the last request, Sabbath Thoughts surprisingly showed up in my inbox, it was a miracle and I thought what must have happened? I’m really happy to have you back and for you to know you are always in my prayers. Your messages have been very helpful and spirituality uplifting. Welcome back!!