Admiring Excellence Over Worshipping Excess
We live in an age where excess masquerades as excellence. Where the grotesque is celebrated as greatness. Where destruction is paraded as discipline. But beneath the glittering veneer lies a foundation of insecurity, ignorance, and misplaced admiration.
It’s time to stop. To dismantle the worship of excess and return to true excellence—an excellence rooted in awareness, intention, and faith.
The Cult of Excess
Take a look around. Bodybuilders chase extremes, injecting themselves with diabolical stacks of PEDs. They trade years of life for fleeting moments of validation. We watch. We applaud. We reward their excess with attention, money, and fame.
Plastic surgery distorts the human form, a masterpiece of divine design, into unnatural proportions. Inflated lips. Sculpted cheekbones. Bloated bodies. The golden ratio—a blueprint for natural beauty—is abandoned for something unrecognizable. Why? Because we reward it. We click, consume, and validate.
In doing so, we fuel these destructive cycles. Industries thrive on our attention. Individuals push themselves further, chasing validation. And as we glorify excess, we destroy ourselves and each other—not with malice, but with ignorance.
The Subtle Murder of Standards
Gone are the days of Cain and Abel, where murder was a visible act of violence. Today, we kill each other in quieter ways—through impossible standards, psychological wounds, and cultural conditioning. We don’t wield swords, but our admiration for excess cuts deeper than any blade.
Every view, every like, every comment is another drop of fuel on the fire. Industries built on insecurities thrive because we collectively validate them. The fitness influencers promoting dangerous PEDs, the celebrities normalizing extreme plastic surgery, the media feeding our addiction to the extraordinary—they all exist because we let them. We fund them with our attention, and we validate their extremes by aspiring to emulate them.
But here’s the truth: excess doesn’t inspire. It devours.
Forgive Them, For They Know Not What They Do
This destruction, though pervasive, is not born of deliberate malice. It stems from ignorance. Hanlon’s Razor reminds us: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by ignorance.”
The ignorance that fuels these destructive behaviors mirrors the words of Christ on the cross: Luke 23:34: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
Just as Christ forgave His executioners, recognizing their actions as driven by blindness rather than evil, we must recognize that the worship of excess is born of collective ignorance. But recognition is not enough. Forgiveness must be followed by action. We must confront this ignorance with awareness, truth, and change.
The Foundation of Insecurity
Why do we worship excess? Because many are trapped by an unconscious foundation of beliefs that whisper lies into the hearts of men and women:
“I’m not enough.”
“I’m not good enough.”
“I’m not worthy of love.”
“I must be better.”
“I am undesirable.”
“I deserve to be hated.”
“I deserve to die.”
These beliefs are the seeds of destruction. They fuel the pursuit of excess, not as a path to excellence, but as an escape from perceived inadequacy. No amount of external achievement can silence them. No amount of validation can erase them. They grow unchecked, fed by cultural pressures and internal wounds.
Proverbs 4:7 reminds us: “The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding.”
Awareness is the first step to freedom. Without it, we remain enslaved to the lies, unable to see how they shape our actions.
Healing Through Christ
True healing begins with Christ. He is the only one who can dismantle the lies of insecurity and replace them with truth.
John 8:36: “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
In Christ, we are no longer defined by our flaws or failures. We are no longer enslaved to the need for external validation. His grace declares:
You are loved.
You are enough.
You are worthy—not because of what you’ve done, but because of what He has done.
Ephesians 2:8-9: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.”
With this truth, we are free to pursue excellence for the right reasons—not to prove ourselves, but to honor our Creator. As 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 reminds us: “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your bodies.”
Intent Shapes Outcome
The why behind our actions matters as much as the results. Consider two people:
Person A works tirelessly to build the perfect body. They train for hours, restrict their diet, and push themselves to extremes. Their intent? To prove their worth. To silence the voice that says, “I’m not enough.” Despite their achievements, they remain restless, empty, and enslaved to insecurity.
Person B pursues the same goal, but with a different intent. They view their body as a temple, a gift from God. Their training is an act of gratitude, a way to honor their Creator. They are disciplined, but not driven by fear. Their peace is not tied to results, but to their alignment with purpose.
The results may look the same on the outside, but the internal outcomes are worlds apart. One path leads to exhaustion and emptiness. The other leads to peace and fulfillment.
This is why Philippians 4:8 calls us to focus on the right intentions: “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”
Excellence is not defined only by results, but by intent. When our actions are rooted in truth and love, they become life-giving rather than destructive.
Searching Our Hearts
The path to excellence requires self-awareness. Psalm 139:23-24 is a prayer for this very purpose: “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
Examine your intentions. Are you pursuing excellence to honor God, or are you chasing excess to silence insecurity? Ask God to reveal the motivations of your heart. Let His truth guide you toward a path of peace and purpose.
A Call to Action
It’s time to reject the worship of excess and embrace true excellence.
Stop rewarding extremes. Stop validating industries that thrive on insecurity. Start admiring those who embody discipline, patience, and faith—not out of fear, but out of love and gratitude.
Luke 23:34: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
Recognize the ignorance that drives destructive behaviors. Forgive it. Confront it. And act.
Choose to honor your body as a temple. Pursue excellence with the right intent. Let Christ heal your wounds and free you from the lies of inadequacy.
Be the change. Embody excellence. Reject excess. Live as a testament to the truth that in Christ, we are already enough.