Letting Go of Perfection

From Rev Dr Tom Nibbe

Good morning, Sunshine! Friends and Fellow Companions in the Journey!

Be blessed this very day and the upcoming days which follow with the divine sense of the Lord's unconditional love and undeserved provision in your life!  Let go and let God!

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Scriptures
2 Corinthians 4:7 "we have this TREASURE in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God, and not from us"
Colossians 1:21-22   "Once you were ALIENATED from God and were ENEMIES in your minds because of your evil behavior... but now He has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in His sight, WITHOUT BLEMISH and FREE FROM ACCUSATION" 
Galatians 6:9  "...let us not become weary in doing good..."
Philippians 3:16  "Only let us live up to what we have already attained..."
Matthew 11:28-30  "Come unto me, all ye who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Prayer
Lord, today, help me let go of my need to be perfect and to unreasonably insist that others be perfect.  I won't use this to tolerate or accept abuse or mistreatment, but to achieve appropriate, balanced expectation.  I want to, and I will create a healthy atmosphere of love, acceptance, and nurturing around and within me.  I will expect that this attitude will bring out the very best in other people and in me, also.  In Jesus' name. Amen

Message
As the years have passed by--more and more--it has been my experience increasingly to accept myself, my shortcomings, and as well, my idiosyncrasies.  Laughing at myself gets me a lot further that "picking on myself" in my attempt to make myself perfect.  Trust me, I've been there! 

How about you?  It seems to me nowadays true prosperity in life is this:

• loving from the heart
• loving from the heart ANYWAY
• being joyful no matter what my situation

and all because, I am an imperfect individual committed to nurturing self-acceptance within.  The fine-edged foundation of this self-acceptance is the Cross.  As the old hymn puts it, "I laid my heavy burden down...at the foot of the Cross...".

It isn't rocket-science.  Happily, you do the best you can, but put an end to expecting perfection from yourself, and also from those around you. 

We do terrible things to ourselves and those around us when we expect perfection.  In the process we create an atmosphere in which others don't feel comfortable with us around.  Ah, let me tell you how bad it gets, when we expect perfection it makes others (and ourselves) so uptight that they (and we) make more mistakes than usual. We become focused upon the mistakes we may make and the penalty resulting from them.

Well, what about the expression, "nobody's perfect". We really should not allow excuses as a result of inappropriate preparation and completion of tasks and projects. We always need to have reasonable boundaries and expectations of others and ourselves.  Which brings to mind the thought that our expectations need to be in line with what is real and practical.  That being true, it also makes sense that expecting perfection isn't reasonable.

People make mistakes.  People do much better in life if they can live with a sense of knowing that they are not expected to be perfect - less anxious and less intimidated.

So what are we supposed to do when it comes to having standards in our lives?  Can we just goof off and have people tolerate us?  Can we just allow others to use excuses when it comes to having standards and producing things and services of quality?

I think a Biblical standard for accomplishment, excellence, and as well, quality in the affairs of everyday life would definitely include this notion.  Striving for excellence, working together to create things of beauty and practicality - the very best we have to offer  - just doesn't happen within a negative, fear-producing atmosphere of overseers expecting perfection.  The good things of life --- the really excellent things of life --- come from the joy and peace of knowing you are doing something outstanding and well.

Some of the best pottery in the world comes from Japan.  The most expensive, the most outstanding pottery made in Japan is made in such a way that there are cracks and crevices in the final products.  This very pottery is the most envied and expensive.  I'd like to think that the most outstanding, productive and precious human beings that are with us in the world are a little bit "cracked" themselves...I would hope this would be true.

So, indeed, especially as people of faith, we might present themselves as productive workers, but be ready at times to fall short of the goal, and being gentle with ourselves, we may be gentle with others.We need to have and set boundaries.  We need to have reasonable expectations.  We need to strive to do our best.  We need to encourage others to do the same.  As we do this, we know that we and others will make mistakes.  We need to understand that we will have learning experiences, that is, things we go through, and being reasonable, we will overcome.  We will be successful.  It will involve pleasant though challenging times.

Sometimes the flaws and imperfections in ourselves, like the Japanese pottery, will determine our uniqueness, and in some cases, pleasantly surprise us by not being a mistake after all.  It will give rise to us to relish our imperfection --- to see that God is at work in our efforts to bring about true art or something new and useful.  Rather than bringing self-condemnation, we will be able to find humor our in human efforts.  As we embrace both sides of our human nature, to strive for excellence--or--to find ourselves in a situation of personal shortcoming...we embrace our circumstances and our most fundamental humanity.  God will be there to bring eventual blessing to each situation.
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In process, we encourage others - having embraced our own humanity - and we do the very best we can ourselves.  With the love of God firmly implanted upon our hearts we discover we are lovable and worthy of love, though flawed.  We nurture ourselves and others for being who and what we are, creatures of God's own making, acceptable.

It is then that we realize that we are not merely human. We affirm heart, soul and mind that we are intended and created to be human:

• Well adjusted
• Hard-working
• Compassionate
• Understanding, and yet imperfect.

​The world need not expect any more from us.  We will be part of the divine solution, not part of the human problem, trusting that God will find us sufficient and that others will accept our humanity.

Cordially,  Tom