“In all Humanity’s religions, man reaches for God. But in all His relationships, God reaches for man. -- Reaches for you who have fallen and scraped your heart raw, for you who feel the shame of words that snaked off your tongue and poisoned corners of your life, for you who keep trying to cover up pain with perfection. -- Three words come through the dense thicket of failure: Where are you?” - Ann Voskamp, The Greatest Gift
Those words struck me, as I tend to wrestle here (somewhere between fear and faith and not enough and too much) with perfectionism, and especially in areas I seem to have some measure of control over. They took me back to a time when I pondered perfection from perplexing perspectives and penned (blogged) a few points that I tho’t to polish up and put here.
In all my years of attempting to do something/anything/even just one thing perfectly, I have never, not once, ever succeeded. And the few times I've even come close (relatively speaking!) were SO stressful.
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"Perfection" is pretty, but attaining and maintaining it is definitely NOT pretty. It's frustrating. Exhausting. Discouraging. Time consuming! Not to mention impossible.
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Perfection is isolating because perfectionists are intimidating &/or intimidated easily.
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With the exception of the precision and perfection I find in nature - which I believe is a reflection of the nature of the Creator - when I do see something or someone that's practically perfect (usually in photos or on TV) almost always, upon closer inspection, I figure out that it's been airbrushed. Photoshopped. Edited!
Evenso, at some point it seems God reached down thru’ my “dense thicket of failure” and presented me with this petite but precious and powerful passage:
Hebrews 10:14 (NIV) For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
WOW! (consider pausing here to ponder that!) ... essentially I understand it to mean that Christ died to do what I was dying to do! And with that understanding it’s heartbreaking (and appropriately so) to think of all the editing/red ink (blood!) my “story” required in order to make me perfect forever! But it seems the transfusion was/has been/is continually transforming - to the point that when I received (believed!) it, I stopped dying & started really living. And tho' doubt still creeps in and so I still wrestle here, somewhere between 'LORD, I believe - & - LORD, please help me overcome my unbelief!”, and tho' it's even more perplexing than all the others, Hebrews 10:14 is definitely the perspective from which I prefer to ponder perfection.
All that said in hopes that you’ll appreciate more than you might have otherwise, my early wishes to you for an IMPERFECT Christmas! … all with understanding that I believe it will be so much less stressful and all the more joy-full that way
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. John 3:16,17 (NIV)
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