what's wrong with being an overachiever?

Like most people, when I think of the word, "overachiever," I think immediately of the suckity-uppity kids who sit in the front row of various classes, ask questions every 5 minutes - even the totally pointless and annoying ones - and sometimes try to make the teacher look bad by catching them in petty "mistakes", look for the professor and TA before and after class, read every word of every assigned reading, and ace all the exams and papers. And somehow, they do the same for every class they take and their transcripts are shining sheets devoid of any curvy letters (unless they took Pass/Fail classes).

I think of people who try to become the president or at least a board member of every one of their 4-5 clubs, read 5 different newspapers cover-to-cover at 6am, find time to work out everyday, and know how to make Rachel Ray's 30-minute-meals in 20 minutes (it's impossible, I tell you!)

Now, looking through that list of potential qualifications...why is it that none of them sound particularly negative? Oh wait, that's because they aren't.

But somehow, the word "overachiever" has a negative tinge to it - it must mean that they have no life or worse, no friends, or they unknowingly or knowingly make other people look bad/feel bad, they think that they're all that and too good for the rest of us, they're stretching themselves too thin and they're crazy control freaks, or worst of all...they must think they don't. need. God. (!!! *whisper* no. way.)

But wait.

It's true that some people who are considered overachievers don't make space for God to work, for God to be in control and be sovereign in their lives. They calculate every hour spent to the minute, worrying that if they loosen their grip by even 1 g*m/s^2, everything will slip out of their hands and they will be left in ruins, all their hard work turned to dust. But I believe that it is possible for others to trust God and lean not on their own understanding (or capabilities) while still achieving the best they can.

Because, by whose standards are they overachieving? Perhaps they have simply been entrusted with more talents according to their abilities. Let's look at Matthew 25:14-21:

14"Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. 15 To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. 16 The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. 17 So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. 18 But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money.
19 "After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. 20 The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.'
21 "His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'

Now, I've always focused on verse 21 - the idea that if we are faithful to the few responsibilities we have right now, God will continue to bless us with more opportunities to be faithful and do His work on this earth, and if we continue to be faithful with those few things, we will ultimately share in the riches of His kingdom in heaven. It's a lesson of the big "O" - obedience - but still sounds awesome, right? But what caught my eye this time was verse 15, where it says that each man was allotted a certain number of talents according to his ability. I mean, on the surface, it sounds really unfair. It's like God created us or blessed us unequally or something. God trusts this guy more than the other guy, etc. etc.

Now, if this verse were truly to go with the whole overachieving thing, maybe the guy with 5 talents could have come back with 10. But since it says 5, we can look at it from this perspective: it's possible that the guy with the 2 talents could have looked at the 5 talents guy and been like, wow. That guy started off with 5 and gained 5 more. I only started off with 2 and I was only able to bring back 2 more. Guy 1, 10. Me, 4. That's like twice as many as mine. What the heck, he's such an overachiever. And of course, when the guy with 1 talent gets hardcore rebuked and his talent is given to guy 1, it's like dang. He has 11 now. That's almost three times as much as I have! What the heck! He just keeps getting rewarded!

But let's look at what the 2nd guy actually said and how the owner reacts:

22 "The man with the two talents also came. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.'
23 "His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'

Does verse 23 look familiar? Yeah, that's prob because it's a repeat of verse 21, exactly how the owner reacted to the 1st guy.

So what does that mean? It means that it doesn't matter how much you start off with (talents) or how much you end up with (moneys, among other things). We need to stop looking at what other people have or what they've done, who their well-connected parents are and where they're going. And this is hard, because in a competitive academic/work setting, where you're constantly measured against the people around you, you can't help but keep looking side to side and evaluating how much you're worth based on how much others say they're worth.

But ultimately, it's really our own efforts that count. Bringing it back to obedience. And it really isn't bad to adopt an overachieving spirit that always pushes to do more and be more - not so that we can feel secure in our own abilities and accomplishments or so that we can have reason to boast and feel important and admired by people, but so that ultimately we can return the glory back to God. Because we know that our lives aren't ours to keep, but we know that we are merely stewards of this body, this space. And we have a desire to finally stand before Him and hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant! Come and share your master's happiness!"

I've been feeling like an underachiever in this past year (June '09 to June '10), and I've been bemoaning the lack of genius genes, networking skillz, and most of all, a glaringly clear sense of direction in life. But I understand that more than that, I've just been fearing the amount of commitment and obedience it'll take to give my all despite all those insecurities. So that fear ends today, and whether I am the 5-talent person or the 2-talent person, I know that for sure I don't want to be the 1-talent person, too afraid to go out in faith and too insecure to keep my eyes only on God.