..Excellence..

Thank God for those who model Excellence.

July 28, 2007 (Saturday) – Craig Biggio announced Tuesday that he will retire after the 2007 season, after 20 years with the Houston Astros. Then, at the game that night, he hit a grand slam home run. The announcer asked, as Craig rounded the bases before thousands of cheering admirers, “Who writes this stuff?” This was Biggio’s second grand slam homer this season. The last one before this year was in 1993. This was the year he also went beyond the 3000 career hits record. He has set many other records with his team. He has always played the best he could at whatever position he was assigned, seldom complained, and conducted his private life as a family man and gentleman, supporting worthy projects in the community. His number 7 will certainly be retired, and some day he will take his place in the Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, New York. He has been an inspiration to others as his work came to be described as excellent.
“Excellence” is defined in an online dictionary as “possessing good qualities in high degree.” We are inspired by people who are characterized by “excellence.” We don’t need to be personally acquainted with them or know them as close friends; we just need to know about them. A person’s good reputation seems to spread like ripples in a pond from a pebble dropped into it. The ripples create concentric circles that eventually spread to the water’s edge.
Think of the people who have been an inspiration to you. You may or may not know them personally, but the excellence of their lives has somehow made a difference in yours as they have influenced your thoughts and actions. In some cases, you have read about them, heard them speak, or seen them on the evening news. You’ve never clasped their hand or heard them speak your name. Yet you feel somehow you know them, and sometimes, though you know better, you get the feeling they know you, too. That’s the power of “Excellence.”
There are, however, some people that you do know personally who have had a tremendous impact upon your life. In your heart they will have a place forever. They stand head and shoulders above the crowd in your eyes. You admire their commitment to excellence of character, ability, gifts, talents, compassion, and sympathy. You are inspired by their love for God and commitment to bless others. You are moved by their selflessness and high ideals. They are your heroes, your inspiration. There may be only one such person influencing you, or maybe several, or many, but oh, how important they have been and continue to be in your life.
Excellence. Thank God for those who model it. Thank Him for the joy of desiring it and striving to attain it. Listen to the grand old hymn: “Hear ye the Master’s call, ‘Give me thy best,’ for be it great or small, that is His test. Do then the best you can, not for reward, not for the praise of man, but for the Lord!”