A tale of two hand-dryers

“For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ. Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials—gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value. If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames.” 1 Corinthians 3:11-15
One of the things I am looking forward to in heaven is no more automatic hand dryers. I don’t know if hand drying will be necessary in heaven or not, but I am pretty sure that there will be no place in perfection for a system that requires you to stand rubbing your hands under a moderately warm, weak flow of air that turns off the second your hands aren’t directly in line with a minuscule sensor. Sure it may be better for the environment, but I’m sure the polar bears will understand my preference for the much more effective paper towel.
I spend a fair bit of time in my university library (being the cool individual that I am…), and, for whatever reason, in the toilets there are two different makes of hand dryer side by side. One is the standard, low poor ineffective type of rubbish hand dryer that has no place in heaven. But the other, it is a whole different kettle of fish. This one is like a wild beast. It produces a powerful jet of hot air that literally makes a visible indentation when it collides with your hand, and actually dries hands pretty quickly. It’s as if it is on steroids or something.
You may be wondering where I am going with this. Well here’s the idea. Both hand dryers are hand dryers. Both will (eventually) dry your hands. But one does its job with excellence, and one just about scrapes by. And I think we can be like that sometimes. We scrape by. We don’t give it our all. We hold back. We are a feeble stream of moderately warm air, rather than the powerful jet of warm air bringing hope and love to the world God intended us to be.
If we are like the first hand dryer, doing just enough, we will still get to heaven. But God doesn’t want us to just settle for that. He wants us to give our all, not to just clear the proverbial bar, but to soar over it. God intends for us not to merely survive, but to thrive.