Nothing short of a 10

Reflections on a long plane ride home.

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Wow, I’m turning 21 soon… This year has been amazing. The best thing about turning 21 isn’t that I can finally drink or gamble or anything like that. But it is that, when I turned 20, I prayed that this past year God would turn me into a man that chases after God’s own heart, and to know what it meant. This doesn’t mean I am a man that I have become that, but rather it means that I think I finally have an idea of what it means.
As I started to pursue God with this mindset, he slowly revealed to me that a lot of living life isn’t about trying our best, but rather giving our best to live a righteous life. The word righteousness came up a lot in my prayers and devotions in this past year. Through serving the church, serving missions, and my family, I’ve come to realize that I had the wrong mentality of “just getting by.” I have lived my life up until this point by giving enough effort to “just get by.” And even then, God has blessed me well beyond what I deserve.
I want to become a man that chases after God’s own heart by giving everything that I have. I believe it is only then can I really become a man that is after God’s own heart. Time is too short for us to live by just getting by, God definitely deserves more from us than the minimal effort to pass.
A Chinese brother of mine told me that in China, on a scale from 1-10 that 6 is passing. And that many Chinese people are satisfied with just getting a 6 because it means that you’ve reached the passing point. I’ve reflected on this quite a bit, and I came to the conclusion that I don’t want anything less than a 10.
From now on, I pray that I will give a 10 effort in every aspect possible. Whether it’s playing sports, academics, serving the church, the list can go on forever. But in short, I want to live a life where I am giving everything I can in my God given ability so that he can be glorified. This is what I think it means to be a man after God’s own heart.