“Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself.” These words were penned by Arthur Conan Doyle, a Famous British mystery writer, and physician, best known for his mystery detective series Sherlock Holmes.¹ It was spoken of what Holmes saw in a young detective he was mentoring and his progress in becoming a very shrewd and capable investigator. To this first line of our quote, the writer, Doyle, added the following about Sherlock Holmes: “But talent instantly recognizes genius.”

Mediocrity is the quality of an average object or subject. It describes someone or something that is very ordinary, middle-of-the-road, uninspiring, undistinguished, unexceptional, unexciting, unremarkable, lackluster, forgettable, and amateurish. To put it another way, they are not listed among the bad, nor are they the best they can be. So, they have settled for what they are because it requires less work and effort.

Sean Simmons, a regular columnist for Collegiate Times, a student newspaper for Virginia Tech University, posted an article for the November 15, 2010, issue in which he wrote about how mediocrity was plaguing society to the point that it was becoming the norm. He wrote: “Now more than ever, mediocrity is dominant in action, thought, and creation. A mundane loop of mediocrity — that is what we are currently trapped in, and right now it doesn’t look like there is any initiative to get away from it.

Most prominent and important is the lack of creativity. Small actions and appearances of a creative presence show up every now and then, but overall, creativity appears to be gone. This slump in the creative community’s appearance in society is a small part of the whole — a society, our society leaning toward mediocrity, leaning toward that horrible idea of settling. And it is a horrible idea: settling, giving up on one thought or idea for something clearly inferior or something that has already been done — settling is giving up. Settling for boring, unoriginal, repetitive ideas we have already seen. This ties into everything: how we live, how we dress, how we see the world.”

If this is true in the secular world, it is certainly true in the spiritual world. How many Christians just read their Bible instead of studying it so they can become more knowledgeable of God’s Word? How many Christians spend hours and hours improving skills for their career but give God little time to developing their ability as a light of virtue and godliness in a dark world? How many Christians spend more time keeping up with the world than being prepared for the world to come? The last thing any believer should want to be called is a “mediocre Christian.” – Dr. Robert R Seyda