Thursday, August 16, 2012

Perfection's Plight


He has set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end” Ecc 3:11.

While watching Charles Stanley, he described our lives as a marching parade with God up on the twelfth floor watching it from beginning to end.  I couldn’t help but to consider that image in further detail.  Each float in a parade is meticulously designed to display the owner’s vision of perfection.  It is decorated to represent an image aligned with the designer’s view in his mind.  While each person takes pride in what they have created, I am sure that they would be able to point out the flaws in the float noticed only by them.  While man watches for the perfection of the image, God watches the direction of the journey.

Perfectionism is one of the most enslaving manners in which to live.  We all have certain areas of perfection in which we strive, along with areas in which we fail.  We were born for a perfect world…perfect bodies…perfect relationships.  But in Genesis 2, perfection died through sin and it will take until Rev. 21 for perfection to be restored. 

When we pursue perfection in any area of our life we are going to fail.  When our eyes are on the details, the prize will always change.  We perfect one area of our life while another area runs off into the weeds, as my husband states.  The antidote for perfectionism is acceptance that we can only attain it through Christ.  In Him, we are perfected through His sacrifice and promised perfection in eternity.

In Choose Joy, the author states it beautifully:  It is not wrong to long for perfection; it’s just wrong to expect it on earth.’ 

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