The problem with being perfect is that you can’t. I try. I do. But no matter how hard I try, I can’t be perfect. Sometimes, I even try to look like I’m perfect. Even though I am far from it. I will never be perfect. But if it’s impossible then why do I try so hard to be perfect? God doesn’t ask me to be perfect. He asks me to be like Jesus.
Ok I know Jesus was perfect. Therefore, I should be perfect. God doesn’t ask me to be Jesus. Instead he asks me to be LIKE Jesus. When I focus on being perfect, I tend to start looking at others. Because when thinking of something abstract like perfection, it is easier to do so in a less abstract way such as looking at others. What they are doing. What they aren’t doing. How they are living. How they aren’t living. Then I begin comparing myself to them. And that is when it all starts to fall apart. I start trying to do what others do that seems perfect in my mind and that is the quickest way to burn out or feel hopeless.
That’s when I need to remember that I am not called to do as everyone else is doing. I shouldn’t even be using them as an example. That’s the difference. When I try to be perfect, I look to others. But if I try to be like Jesus, then I have to pay attention to him. I have to study his actions. His attitudes. His life. I have to spend time with him. I have to learn about him. And the more time I spend focusing on qualities or attitudes I lack, the more God helps me to be more like Jesus. And the more I’m like Jesus, the less I care about doing what others are doing and the more I care about what God thinks.
And he thinks I can be made perfect in my brokenness because he can fix me. He can make me new. He can make me like Jesus.
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. // 2 Corinthians 5:21