Halfway up the Mountain

The word “mediocre” came from a word that originally meant “halfway to the peak.”

Mediocrity is tolerable if I am in junior high school. If it is time to graduate from high school, only being halfway up the mountain is bad. One of the words Jesus sent to one of the churches He spoke to through John (Revelation 3:14-21) is that He wished that they were either cold or hot – but not half of each.

Being inoffensive but ineffective, being nice but dishonest, being religious but not righteous; all have  a line drawn in a place that is the “middle of the road.” That is a place that we justify as valuable because it represents “moderation in all things.”

There is a ditch on either side of a road, and both would be good to avoid. The answer to avoiding the ditches is not mediocrity, however. It is staying on the sure path.

The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,
shining brighter and brighter until midday.
But the way of the wicked is like the darkest gloom;
they don’t know what makes them stumble.
(Proverbs 4:18-19 Holman Christian Standard Bible ®©)