Excellence Is To Transcend Your Job Description

An average person says “this is not my job. I am not paid to do this. I don’t care.” But an excellent person says “I am here to provide the best possible service to my client or to my employer. Even if I am not paid to do this, I will do it for the sake of the customer. I will do it for my company. I’ll go an extra mile for them.”

There is a story of this young nurse, fresh out of graduation. On the first day of her work, she was in the operation theatre with a veteran surgeon. She was there and she was very nervous. After the operation, the surgeon said “let’s stitch up the patient.” The nurse said to the doctor, “Doctor, I counted we used 12 sponges. But we only have 11 right now. There is one sponge that is still inside the patient.” The doctor said, “No, we have all twelve. Stitch up.” The nurse said, “You can’t do that. Think about the patient.” The doctor told her to stitch up the patient and he would take full responsibility. And then he lifted up his feet and the sponge was on the floor. He then turned to the nurse and said, “You will do well.” It was not the nurse’s job or responsibility to ensure that the doctor did the right thing but she couldn’t let the matter passed by. For the sake of the patient, she had to tell the doctor. She transcended her job as a nurse.

In Matthew 5:41, Jesus said, “And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two.”  Jesus was training His disciples to do more than what was asked of them. You can say that the first mile represents duty. The second mile represents love. So going the second mile is someone who goes beyond the call of duty into love. God’s call for your life and mine is to go beyond the call of duty. Everything we do, we do it out of love just like God who sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for your sin and my sin. When God did this, He went the extra mile for us. When we have nothing to offer Him, when we don’t deserve it, He did it out of love for us. Every company will look for employees who will go beyond the call of duty. If you want to be excellent, successful, then you have to go beyond the call of duty into love. When you love the people, the customer you are serving, the employer you are working for, your promotion and success are going to come.

Success is not some elusive thing or mystery. It doesn’t depend on luck. It is something you can have control in your life as long as you are willing to be responsible and hardworking. If you are a person who works with love, you will not work based on the working hours you have but you will work with a purpose. You will not be calculative on what is your job scope. You will do whatever it takes to help the company succeed. But love only begins after the demands of duty have been met. Love begins only after what you have completed what we call, your obligation.

Romans 13:8 says “owe no one anything except to love one another.” The order is very important. The negative requirement comes first - “owe no one anything”. This is your obligation. This is your duty. Make sure you do what is right. Pay off what you owe. Clear that off first. Then you can move on to the next one which is the positive requirement to love one another.

As a husband, you cannot say you love your wife until you have fulfilled your obligation as the breadwinner of the family, as a prophet, priest and king, and as a protector to her. Then you can say “Darling, I love you.” In marriage counselling, we always hear the wife say that the husband doesn’t love her. The husband will say that he does - He hugs her, he holds her hands, he kisses her all the time. But the wife will say ‘no’ to all these. Often, the wife will say that the husband does not provide for her, not a breadwinner, the husband lies down on the bed all the time and is a bum, he doesn’t help with the housework, and etc. He can’t say he loves the wife because he has not been a good husband to her and meets her needs.  Let’s get this right. Owe no one anything first then you love one another.