When C Is Not Average

This world is governed by "C" people - not "the best and the brightest" only, but the committed, the consecrated, and the compassionate. In scriptures you find over and over again that "C" people also prevail. Indeed, God chooses ordinary people to achieve extraordinary tasks. The things we say we''ll never do - "It''s not in me" - become the very things God''s grace leads us into. God gives us the resources we need at the time we need them.

One of the greatest pressures we all operate under is the imperative to succeed. Parents no longer just worry about their children getting into a good college; they worry about them getting into a good pre-school. Increasingly a B.A. or B.S. degree only qualifies its recipient to work at a McDonald's.

Throughout the Excessive Eighties and into the New-Age Nineties, we are possessed with a drive to "stand head and shoulders above everyone else," either through our looks, our wealth, our success, or even our silliness. (The new "Candid Camera" clones like "America's Funniest Home Videos" offer a $10,000 reward to the most ridiculous video of the week.) Today's cultural standards decry the mean, avoiding averages in favor of extremes at all costs. Dazzling successes, or even splashy failures, are our heroes. Average is to be avoided at all costs.

The problem with this attitude is that it is neither scripturally true nor sociologically accurate. Any high school reunion confirms the fact ...