At least ten times this week I have heard the expression “Take it to the next level.” It’s the current way to say, “Up your game.” It’s a call to excellence. It inspires us to not be satisfied with present attainments, no matter how good, and to get even better.
Paul said it in Romans 12:2. He wrote, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
Peter said it in I Peter 1:15. “But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do.”
Jesus said it in the Sermon on the Mount. “Be ye perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Matthew 5:48.
They are telling us to “Take it to the next level.” Life is about growth, learning new things, honing talents and “going where no man has gone before.”
Perhaps age is taking its toll and we cannot do as well some of the things we used to be able to do really well. That doesn’t mean we stop doing them. We don’t have to think “Take it to the next level” means the next level down. It is just the next level “different.” A song sung from the heart is so much better than a song sung with pitch perfect tones without soul. A twenty minute mile is so much better than a four minute mile if we smell the violets along the way. Our passions and desires can burn just as intensely as when we were teens. The next level is now we can control them and savoring them is all the better.
Written by Roger Bothwell on April 30, 2015
Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
rogerbothwell.org