This week, I am particularly working on picking my battles when it comes to my overwhelming compulsion to be a perfectionist. First of all, perfectionism doesn’t exist. All I can do, in the end, is my best. In addition, my best is further actually qualified by the parameters of the current task, the deadline I face, my current state of health, etc. Finally, I often work too hard at being better in areas that are good enough, thereby leaving areas in my life that could actually use more effort dangling in the wind.
The most important point about perfectionism, however, is that no matter how good I am at anything, I don’t have to be in order to achieve the most important thing of all–the mercy of God. God gives me salvation through the grace of my faith in Jesus, whether I am perfect at the latest thing I am working on or not.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not completely off the hook. Because of my acceptance of God’s love, I have become, as Paul tells us, “a new creation.” I want to do what is good and right and loving, extending the grace that has been offered me to others as well.
So, if I am going to worry about perfection in anything, it should be in my walk outside the life of sin. Being dead to sin, I should wake up each day trying to be perfect in Christ, forgiving and loving others and myself when I stumble, being open in my communication with God, from whom there is no secrets, so that I might be forgiven my mistakes and start the next day anew, His mercies surrounding me to help me do better this next day I have been given.
And I don’t exceed in anything that is truly important to God if I get caught up in the day-to-day spiral of trying to bring to perfection that which only requires good enough, especially when love should truly be the greatest goal of all.
Category: Faith
Masks
I recently had to attend a convention-type event for my day job, which turned out to be a very pleasant experience. For an introvert like myself, that outcome for such events is not usually the case. At any rate, for myself, as with even the extroverts in the room, events like conventions are places where we can become aware of the different faces we wear in the world because these are the types of places where we meet a lot of people we do not know. In a psychology or literature class, you might call these faces “masks.” For an introvert like myself, I have to put on a brave face in crowds. I make myself smile, nod at people’s comments, and try to think of good questions to ask so I can add something to the conversation. Around my family, I can immediately allow my displeasure to be shown. When I am around strangers, I have to find more delicate ways to get a negative opinion across, if that is what is called for.
When I start to think about the different masks I wear, the different roles I play in this life–from wife to daughter, from sister to friend, from employee to boss–I am struck by the realization that God sees all my masks, every one of them, not just the mask I put on to pray or go to church on Sunday morning.
You understand, I am not talking of masks as fake facades, but as differing projections of the self. We are, after all, slightly different if not enormously different, in different situations. But God sees the person underneath and the projected self all the time, even the much of the time that we forget He is watching.
How alike would my masks become if I could see myself through God’s eyes all the time? I would become a better person, certainly, but would I be a different person at home visiting my parents than I am teaching a class to my employees?
I would hope that any differences would be of such little importance (perhaps better posture in one situation than another or slightly less formal language, for example) that my masks are all essentially the real me. And, hopefully, the real me is the projection of God any true believer in Christ should always strive to be.
Are You Too Young For Glue?
I was relishing one of my Dennis the Menace books the other day, when I was particularly struck by one of my favorite cartoons that I had completely forgotten about. In this one drawing snippet into the life of a rascally young boy, Dennis is standing in front of his mother, perfectly cute and cuddly looking as only children and puppy dogs can be, but covered randomly from his head to his toes with pieces of paper. The caption for the picture reads, “You were right, Mama, I’m too young for glue.”
When I finished chuckling and put the book back down, I was struck by the idea that this simple truth might be applied to my own, Christian life. How often, after all, do I plunge head on into situations or plans without first considering what the Bible, and thereby, God, has to say about it? The first example that came to my mind was Christ’s admonition to remove the moat from our own eye before worrying about the speck in someone else’s. How often, in a single day, have I wound up with bits of paper stuck to me without even realizing it through the rush to judgment and gossipy talk in which I have engaged?
I’m too young to play with glue yet when it comes to many aspects of the Christian life, even though I have been trying to live my faith as a way of life for more than 30 years.
How about you? Are you old enough for glue yet? Let’s keep praying and studying the Word, and I am confident God’s grace will get us there.
God is not restrained
The last time you read about the adventures and perils of David and his good friend, Jonathan, the son of David’s enemy, King Saul, did you happen to linger for any time at 1 Samuel 14:6?
I didn’t, but I’m glad today that the preacher at church did, for in that verse, Jonathan, who is about to face down 20 Phillistines with only the aid of his armor-bearer, proclaims his faith in the Lord by stating that God is not restrained by many or by few when it comes to accomplishing His will.
As the preacher asked this morning of the congregation how many of us had let ourselves give up because we were too few, I was struck anew at the concept of the mustard seed and God’s ability to do more than we can ever imagine with even the smallest gesture on our part that is in keeping with His will and accomplished through faith.
God cannot be restrained. God will not be restrained. I find that comforting in the wake of so many crazy things that seem to be happening in our world. I also find that comforting as a struggling writer who feels that God gave her an ability to write for a reason. I, of course, am often thinking that reason should be something much more grand and glorious than I have heretofore accomplished, but Jonathan’s example reminds me that the smallest thing I do with my writing might just be what God had in mind when He handed that talent to me.
So, ask yourself today, where in my life am I forgetting that God cannot be restrained by many or by few? Go ahead. Prayerfully and with faith, take that tiny step you’ve held yourself back from when you were thinking, as I was, that it would not be enough.
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