Maybe imperfection is perfection in disguise.
We all know that Adam and Mrs. Adam were the sum total of perfect humanity, in our recorded history. Two.
And since neither you nor I are one of those two, a couple of things seem equally counterproductive:
- using perfectionism to excuse doing little or nothing to excel in this life
- using being imperfect to excuse chronic poor performance
Maybe your nostril openings aren’t supposed to match. Maybe one ear was meant to be larger than the other, or placed slightly off-plane from the other one. Think about it: your hairdresser puts fingers aside your head and squints thoughtfully, checking alignment–and then proceeds to cut your sideburns or bangs uneven. And they go to school to do that.
Maybe you weren’t supposed to be handed everything. Maybe God’s perfection for you and I in this life is our individual, ruefully-admitted imperfections. Maybe those who choose to excel today do so because they understand there’s a grand total of zero of us able to kick back, contentedly sigh and recline on who we’ve already been and what we’ve already done without losing ground.
Maybe you weren’t supposed to be handed everything.
It seems the detractors of Christ and His influence in the lives of those who’ve made Him Lord eventually focus their derogatisms in some form of this: “Oh, you think you’re just SO holy and righteous!”
Taking the chance to answer for all believers, I respond: “No. I don’t. I know better. Not only has my own life experience been teaching me I’m nothing on my own and my only true worth is found in Christ, living in and through me. Also, The Word plainly says otherwise. God called David a man after His own heart, which speaks to me of a close relationship. David wrote that no one living is righteous before God (Psalm 143:2). Isaiah wrote that all our righteous routines and devotional drama amount to used pads and tampons (64:6). Yeah, he, ah, wasn’t out to win any votes.
My take: imperfection is God’s perfect tool to incite you and I to excel. To make a habit of transforming imperfection’s negative energy into positive growth. Somebody wrote that loss makes artists of us all as we weave new patterns in the fabric of our lives.
There’s always a story behind the imperfect, negative places. Learn from it, but let go of that story. Feel the heart beating beneath, around and in spite of it. See the living soul, the vibrating spirit rising above all of that, reaching toward personal and spiritual excellence.
“Clever, Perfection. Sneaky how you pose as imperfection to draw those of us out who don’t want to stay down. Well-played.”
The Voice: “You’re welcome. Now, get back in there.”
© D. Dean Boone, May 2016