The "Pressure" of Perfection

It's only one day till Valentine's day. Wow, do you feel the pressure? I do. There is just so much pressure to be "perfect" no matter what realm of life we are talking about. We think we have to find the perfect gift, the perfect card, the perfect restaurant, etc. . . Wow, where did that come from?

Our drive for perfection "pushes" us in every realm of life even in our relationship with our God. We think we have to be perfect to come to him. For awhile we were lucky enough to have a house keeper. She would come in every other week, to dust, vacuum and clean every little corner of the house that you could think of. It was great but I felt like we had to clean the house for the housekeeper. After all I didn’t want her to think that we were slobs!

I know that sounds stupid but that’s exactly the way we act with God. We think we have to get our life “cleaned” up before we can come to Him. First understand you will never be good enough to come to God on your own. Second understand that God comes to you just the way you are.

According to the New Testament Jesus is attracted to the unattractive. One author put it this way. “He prefers the lost ones over the found ones, the losers over the winners, the broken instead of the whole, the messy instead of the neat and the crippled instead of the noncrippled. . . .Until we admit we are a mess, Jesus won’t even have anything to do with us. Accepting the reality of our broken, flawed lives is the beginning of spirituality not because the spiritual life will remove our flaws but because we let go of seeking perfection and, instead seek God.” Mike Yaconelli, “Messy Spirituality”