Good, Better, Best

Scripture — Philippians 1:9-11 (NIV)

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.

Devotion

Samuel Harvey was the principal of Glendale High School, where I was a student from 1972 through 1975. I always liked Mr. Harvey, who was calm, kind, and encouraging. When I was student body president, he went out of his way to support and mentor me. Though I didn’t know it at the time, Mr. Harvey was also a committed Christian. I learned that years later, when I led a men’s retreat for a Presbyterian church in Glendale. There was Mr. Harvey, singing, praying, hanging out with the guys, and, predictably, encouraging me in my leadership. “Please call me Sam,” he said. I tried, but it never seemed quite right. He was always Mr. Harvey to me.

In addition to his warm demeanor and consistent encouragement, I remember one thing Mr. Harvey said repeatedly. He said it in school assemblies, in student leadership meetings, and in one-on-one conversations. “Good, better, best,” he would say, “never let it rest. Until the good is better and the better best.” Mr. Harvey never said where he got that line. Some people attribute it to St. Jerome, but there’s no evidence of this. The origin of Mr. Harvey’s oft-repeated quotation remains a mystery.

I’m quite sure Mr. Harvey didn’t get his beloved line from St. Paul, though Paul might well have approved of the main idea. In his letter to the Philippians, Paul opens with a prayer for them which reads: “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God” (1:9-11). Paul prays that the Philippian Christians would “be able to discern what is best.” He wanted them to distinguish between what’s good and what’s better and what’s best. In this way the believers in Philippi would be “pure and blameless” and “filled with the fruit of righteousness.” Discernment, in this passage, is all about “good, better, best.”

What Paul once prayed for the Philippians is something you and I long to have in our lives. We need to discern what is best, whether at work or at home, at church or in our communities. We desire to know what’s best in every part of life so that we might invest our lives in what is best, in what truly matters, in what honors God most of all.

Sometimes, however, it is difficult to know what’s best in any given situation. Of course, sometimes, as we’re wondering how to act, there is a clear distinction between right and wrong, good and evil. If we’re trying to sell a certain product, for example, we don’t have to wonder if it’s okay to lie to a potential buyer. Lying would be wrong. But often the decisions we face are not so clearly right or wrong. If you have a direct report who is performing okay but not great, should you exhort them or rebuke them? Should you put them on an improvement plan or start the process of letting them go? Should you give them additional training for their job or move them to another position that might be a better fit? Etc. etc. etc.

Work isn’t the only place where discerning what’s best can be difficult. Some of the hardest decisions I’ve faced in life have been in my family. Should we keep our children in a school that feels toxic, or should we help them to develop more resilience? Should we send our son to the college that seems best for him, or go with the second best, which is offering lots of scholarship money? Should we move our family to Texas when our life in Irvine is in so many ways ideal? Etc. etc. etc.

I’m sure you can remember times in your life when you’ve struggled to know what is best. It’s especially hard when you’re faced with several good options. Nothing is obviously or terribly wrong. But you want to know what’s best. Maybe you’re dealing with such a challenge right now.

So, if we’re going to be able to discern what is best in life and work, where should we start? I’d suggest that we should imitate Paul’s example. We start, not with advice, not with counsel, not with exhortation, but with prayer. Yes, like Paul, we should pray for others that they might discern what is best. This is especially true concerning the people entrusted to our care: our direct reports, customers, patients, students, constituents, family members, and so forth. I can pray right this moment, “Lord, please help my children to discern what is best in their lives, in work, in family, and in other relationships.” (In fact, I just did pray this way!)

Certainly, we can and should pray for others in this regard. But, by implication, we can also pray for ourselves: “Lord, help me to discern what is best. Help me to know what’s best so that I might do what’s right and become more and more like you.”

In upcoming devotions, we’ll take a close look at Philippians 1:9-11, seeking God’s guidance for how we might discern what is best. For now, let me encourage you to pray, pray for others, and pray for yourself.

Find all Life for Leaders devotions here. Explore what the Bible has to say about work at the unique website of our partners, the Theology of Work Project. Reflection on today’s Life for Leaders theme can be found here: The One Who Began a Good Work Among You Will Bring it to Completion (Philippians 1:1–26).