Two interesting articles in The Atlantic Monthly. One was a column by James Parker on late night shows. This column explained clearly why I don’t particularly like late night shows. They don’t mean anything.

This quote was very clarifying for me: “Like Seinfeld, The Larry Sanders Show was deeply committed to superficiality, honoring the intuition of the ’90’s viewers that Western civilization had essentially ended and that society was a husk of manners and absurd ritual.”

No wonder I didn’t particularly like late night shows.

Another article called “Your Child Left Behind” by Amanda Ripley looks into studies on American education, especially in the field of math. As per all studies before, we’re behind. But according to Stanford economist Eric Hanushek it’s not because we’re not spending money. In his studies he has shown that what we THINK works just doesn’t correlate. More money doesn’t lead to better results. Smaller classrooms don’t tend to improve learning.

He broke up the states to see if any states were doing well against other nations. The best state in the math competition was Massachusetts, which came in at number 17. Minnesota came in at number 20. Eighteen countries do better in math proficiency than the best state in the Union. The Czech Republic ranks in the top 15.

Is the answer to spend more money? That’s the common thought. Yet, New York is tops in spending at a whopping $17,000 per student… and that lands them behind 15 other states and 30 countries. Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, and Lithuania have better math proficiency scores than New York, as an example. The U.S. spends more per student on education than all but three other nations. Yet… we’re not getting it done.

Why?

Actually, I see the two articles in the magazine being tied together. It can be said this way: mediocre is my motto. We just don’t want to excel anymore. The only thing we excel at is griping. We can complain. We probably lead the world in whining.

But excel in something? Require something of people? Ask them to rise to an occasion out of pride for self and their culture? Oh, puhleeze!

Which brings me to the motto and the Church. I can complain about the Church as good as anyone. I can gripe about American Christianity with the best of them.

But what would I choose to excel at in my life? Could I excel at knowing Christ? Could I excel at loving the Church? Could I excel at loving my neighbor?

If I am convinced that Jesus is beautiful and powerful and magnificent, could I not live that out in my own life? Just live it out.

Refuse mediocrity. Fly at the task of knowing Christ.

No need to throw more money at it. No need to just resign myself to the mediocrity around me. Can I determine to know Christ and then let his radiance shine through me?