“Excellence Every Time”
Last week, I printed out a coupon for my brother for the Blu-ray of The Princess And The Frog. The coupon had a slogan on the bottom of the page that I hadn’t seen before and that intrigued me: “Genuine Disney Movies…Excellence Every Time.”
OK, so even a hardcore Disneyphile like myself can admit that it’s a bit of hyperbole to state that Disney hits the mark on excellence every time. I bet there were plenty of times when Walt begged God to rain down plagues upon Michael Eisner for the cheap, direct-to-video sequels that Disney Animation had to do in the 90’s. And I think in the last decade or so, they’ve worn out the premise of the middle-aged man who has to take care of the child he never knew he had. And don’t get me started on Lilo & Stitch.
But the other side of the coin is that Disney achieves excellence more often that not. The Disney studio in its various forms has produced consistent entertainment for nearly 90 years. The most highly revered of the classic animated films, including Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, Aladdin, and Toy Story, carried the Disney name. Live action films from Swiss Family Robinson to Seal Island to The Sixth Sense to The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe are all Disney productions. Disney created innovative television series going all the way back to the Disneyland series in the 50s up to shows like Lost today. Cast members at five Disney theme parks on three continents ensure an immersive vacation experience for hundreds of thousands of guests each year.
All this got me thinking…how often to I achieve excellence in what I do? I know I don’t reach the heights of Disney, but do I create excellence more often than not? I’m sure that there are even times when I think I’ve done something with excellence and I haven’t come anywhere close to hitting the mark.
Paul makes it pretty clear that we should achieve excellence no matter what our tasks are:
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”
Colossians 3:23-24 (NIV)
If we all thought about our jobs…our lives at home…our everyday existence in those terms, I think we’d all do better at everything. I can’t help but think that we’d truly see excellence every time with believers who live out those verses. And I truly believe that the world would take notice of us more as well.
Photo: Los Angeles Times, CC BY 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons