Love Quote by Aiden Wilson Tozer

A.W. Tozer’s line reads like a motivational poster, but its engine is theological, not self-help. “Refuse to be average” isn’t a call to personal branding or hustle culture; it’s a rebuke aimed at complacent religion. Tozer wrote in a mid-century evangelical world increasingly shaped by respectable middle-class norms, where faith could become a polite accessory to stability. “Average,” in that context, signals spiritual mediocrity: churchgoing without awe, doctrine without desire, morality without risk.

The second sentence flips the first from discipline to longing. “Let your heart soar” gives permission, almost scandalous permission, to want more than decency. Tozer’s subtext is that many believers don’t lack information; they lack appetite. The “heart” here isn’t sentimentality but the seat of attention and devotion. He’s pushing against a faith that keeps God safely sized to fit a schedule, a budget, a reputation.

Notice the quiet absolutism in “as high as it will.” No external ceiling is named. Not “as high as your community approves,” not “as high as your personality allows,” not even “as high as your circumstances permit.” Tozer implies the limiting factor is internal consent: the will to desire God intensely. The rhetoric works because it frames holiness as aspiration rather than mere avoidance of sin, and it exposes “average” as a moral choice disguised as normalcy. For Tozer, the real failure isn’t falling short; it’s settling.