This is tough news for anyone with a perfectionist streak. A pastor once said, “Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly” and I understand that now more than when first hearing it. I’ve known people who are so determined to do well that they will not undertake activities in which they cannot excel. For them, it is perfection or don’t do it.
This demand for being at the top happened in high school. I did well and soon my peers jeered me if I didn’t get 100% in pop quizzes. I soon felt like a failure if I didn’t succeed and that feeling, plus pride, made life challenging. Part of the challenge is that not everything can be measured by a percentage grade.
Consider Jesus answer to this question: What is the greatest commandment?
And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. (Matthew 22:37–39)How does one measure love? Jesus also said we are to love others as God loved us? Does that mean I die on a cross for them? Or meet all their needs? Or understand their very thoughts? Doing well in this department is impossible to gauge like golf shots or pop quizzes. How do I know if I have loved adequately? By the reactions of others? By how take my advice? By their thankfulness?
Apart from affirmation by the Holy Spirit, there is no way of knowing when love is 100% or any percent. It is the same with obedience. Human desire can mess with honest evaluation. Perfection can be motivated by pride or the desire for power and who knows what else. These thoughts point me to this passage that clarifies what God means by perfection:
On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses— though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth; but I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:5–10)Paul had all the skill and background needed to be a major leader in the early church. But God would not let him be proud of himself. He gave him a thorn, wisely not defined. Whatever it was, God left it there to keep this incredible man from human perfectionism. The only way he could do what God wanted was to be weak, unable, useless without the power of Christ.
Personally, I know this. Rejoicing in weakness is part of hitting a hole-in-one when it comes to obedience. If I am aware that I cannot ‘score’ and rely on Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit, then I know He will do His work through me, and I might not even see the scoreboard, only hear a tiny bit of heavenly cheering — maybe.
Failing is no fun. Feeling helpless is no fun either, but unless I welcome it instead of trying in my own strength, failure is guaranteed. The perfection I desire is found only in Christ, and to have it means saying no to all else.
PRAY: Jesus, the past few days have been a huge test of who I will trust, for forgiveness and redemption, but also for the decisions of everyday life, and for the ability that You give, even in weakness and hardships. The choice is always me or You, and when plainly put, the decision is really a no-brainer. Forgive me for forgetting, and for feeling sorry for myself that I cannot do anything without You. That also misses the mark! Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment