blind animals

I remember an evening doing dishes with Dawn, back when I was working on my Masters. She asked about a paper I was working on, and I said something like, "I think right now it would get a solid B. I'm tempted to say good enough and submit it." To which my fifth-grade son responded, "Dad, you always tell me a B is good if it's the best I can do."

It's often tempting not to do my best work, and sometimes that attitude is even justified if there's other, more important tasks waiting. But this raises a legitimate question: when is it OK to do less than God equipped me to do?

The prophet Malachi brought that question back to the forefront for me this morning, especially in Malachi 1, where God calls out his people for disrespecting him. Read verses 6-8:

"'But you ask, "How have we shown contempt for your name?"

'By offering defiled food on my altar.

'But you ask, "How have we defiled you?"

'By saying that the Lord’s table is contemptible. When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice lame or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?' says the Lord Almighty."

If I accept that this law of the sacrifice, the one that said bringing flawed animals was wrong, has been superseded by the law of grace, the conclusion is convicting. In grateful response to grace, Jesus calls me to use my giftedness in his service. That's my new sacrifice, if you will.

So is a second-best effort equivalent in some spiritual way to a blind animal? It seems like an argument that could be made. All those minutes given grudgingly when hours were called for, or the thoughtless participation in an activity that deserved prayerful preparation, could those stem in some way from the same attitude that led God's people in Malachi's day to bring their least valuable animals?

That's a scary thought, because God described that attitude as defiling his altar and showing contempt for him. I shy away from that, but it could be a fair way to describe what I do with what God has given me: use it primarily to make my own earthly life better.

This is a sin I need to repent of. This is a conviction I need to consider. It seems like it calls for some significant change, first of attitude and then of action. I hope I'm obedient enough to change.