Perfection

Can you feel it?

That deep down inside of you urge to do whatever it is you do (or happen to be doing right now or plan on doing soon) in the absolute most perfect way possible?

That nagging, gnawing, frustrating feeling that what you just did (or did a long time ago) could have been better?

I get that feeling a lot and I've gotta tell you it is really annoying. I never feel like I'm giving "it" my "all". I never feel like I'm running at 100%. I never feel like I'm worthy of even the simplest compliment because I know, deep down I could have done better.

Why is that?

I think it's because we live in an imperfect world. A world that is broken and bleeding. A world torn around the edges and down the middle. But, once upon a time, there was a perfect world. There was world just as God made it. Just as He intended. Sometimes I feel as if that world is just around the corner. I feel as if I could reach out and touch it if I could just align myself a few degrees and a slice of time askew from this world.

Somehow, somewhere, locked up in our DNA is the memory of that prior world and the knowledge of that other existence. We can somehow sense that its there. Just out of reach. Tantalizingly close. Infuriatingly far.

I think that's where our desire for perfection comes from. Knowing that perfection does exist. Knowing that we were made for perfection. Knowing that someday we will find perfection with our Father in Heaven. Desiring some small bit of that perfection in our mundane, ordinary and very imperfect lives.

I acknowledge the fact that I am imperfect but I don't accept it. Perfection is a journey, not a destination. I would rather be miserable going forward in the pursuit of perfection than happy, content and complacent going backward.

Consistency

This weekend our pastor stood up on stage and confessed a number of sins to us. (If you're not a Mountain Lake Church attender this may seem odd but we're currently doing a series called Pastor Confessions so you can see how it fits...) Many of the things he said resonated with me but one in particular stood out. I'll call it the sin of inconsistency.

What Shawn was talking about was being different people in different environments. I think this is a key point at which most of us screw up. Are you the same person at work that you are at home? The same at home that you are at church? What about when you're out with "the guys"?

You might argue that it is important to adapt your behavior a bit based on the crowd you're in. I would challenge that with a very blunt "why?" Why do we need to alter the way we act based on who is in the room with us? Do we act more polite at church because we're embarrassed to be the rude jerk we are elsewhere? Are we rude with our buddies at the tractor pull because that's what everyone else is doing?

C'mon! What gives? Lets be honest for a minute... Lets confess just a little bit of truth about ourselves... Aren't we altering the way we behave just so that we'll fit in? Even if we're acting "counter-culture" to the group we're in isn't it just to fit in with the counter-culture group we're trying to impress?

Well? Am I right?

Maybe I am and maybe I'm not but f we're changing our personalities based on the environment the way we change shirts then are we really being true to ourselves? Are we really being true to who God made us to be? I'm pretty sure He didn't make us to be behavioral chameleons!

Now I am not encouraging you to be a rude jerk at church just because that's who you are with your buddies at the card game. Quite the opposite. If you're a rude jerk that's a character flaw and you probably need to work on that.

Rather, I am encouraging you towards a bit of self-reflection, introspection if you like, and some serious conversations with God about who you are and who He wants you to be. Why do you feel the need to change back and forth? Why can't you find one person that you like to be and stick with it?

Am I successfully doing this in my own life? Absolutely not. I'm just as identity challenged as the next person in line. But, like Shawn, I'm working on it and trying very hard to eliminate the sin of inconsistency. One of these days there will be exactly one of me. I look forward to meeting him.

Title Track

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6 NIV)

Before I was a Christian I had a bit of trouble with this verse. "No one..." That seems a bit harsh, don't you think?

But as I began to learn more it began to make sense. You see... God is completely Holy. He cannot abide sin. Never mind being in the same room with it, He can't be in the same universe with it! But we humans are sinners. It's a fact. We all do Bad Things. How, then, can we go to Heaven, be in the presence of God, if God cannot tolerate the presence of our sin?

Well, He worked that out. He came to us in the flesh as Jesus Christ. He put aside His deity for a time to walk with us physically. To experience all that we experience. To be one of us. He died on the cross for us, for our sins. During that moment when He cried out "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Mat 27:46 NIV) He took on all our sins. Every one of us, for all time. And in that moment He made it possible for us to stand before our God in Heaven, forgiven and without sin.

So, when Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" it wasn't a harsh "you gotta be a part of the club" answer. It was simply a statement of fact. Only through Christ can we be forgiven and have our sin washed away so that we can someday stand - without sin - before God.