Choosing the Best Over the Good

By Jeff Becraft

The other week, one of the members of Our Place of Hope named Adam and myself were out pulling up flowers and planting new ones. (Adam cannot see… but that is worth a story all by itself.) Another person stepped outside and when they saw what we were doing, they gasped and almost in shock, said, “You’re pulling up the flowers?!”

I totally understood their shock and some of the emotion that they were feeling. There were still a lot of blooms on these flowers, and I had even waited a whole extra week before we started pulling them up. But these were summer flowers, and even though they still had a lot of blooms, the plants themselves were starting to fade, and they would be fading more and more each day. And so, even though they still had some beautiful blooms on them, overall they were fading and it was time to move forward and plant flowers that would thrive in fall and winter.

I kind of stood there for an instant because I empathized with what they were feeling and saying.

Then I responded, “Well… sometimes you have to get rid of what is good in order to make room for what is best.”

And that is true with a lot of things in life and a lot of situations in life.

The toughest decisions are not between good and bad or right and wrong. The toughest decisions are between good and good, and between good and best. Sometimes it is difficult to recognize that the good is getting in the way of the best or we do not want to let go of what is good in order to achieve or obtain what is best.

I totally get it. It was difficult to pull those flowers up when they still had so many beautiful blooms on them. But we couldn’t have those plants plus the new plants. (And by the way, the new plants did not look really stunning… it will take time, care, and work for them to grow and flourish.)

That can also be true in various situations in life. At that moment, what is new and needed and best may not look as good. And that is why it requires courage to choose what is best over what maybe looks good at that instant.

It’s a great day to choose what is best!

Jeff Becraft is the Director of Our Place of Hope, where people find encouragement to regain meaning, purpose, and hope for their lives. Jeff has dedicated much of his life to helping shift the vision of people’s lives. If you would like Jeff to speak to your group or event, you can connect with him at  [email protected].