Day 1997 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Ecclesiastes 7:20 NIV

I've been thinking quite a bit about perfection. It's one of those things that I think many of us chase after, yet just never manage to find. That's because it isn't possible. Perfection just isn't gonna happen no matter how hard we try, how much we change, or how hard we focus. No matter what we do, we just can't lay our hands on it. And what we'll find is that the more try, the more disappointed we become because we're trying to fit into some kind of mold that we're never going to get in.

I've noticed here lately that my workouts have just plain sucked. I've taken a week off thinking that maybe I was just worn down and needed to catch up. I've changed things up a little bit thinking that maybe a little something new might bring me back to life. I've even put my head down and tried to force my way back into feeling right. Nothing. None of it helped all that much. But I finally think I've nailed down what's gone wrong.

I'm trying too hard to make it all perfect. I've built up these expectations that I haven't had since I've started down this road of working out and getting healthier. And I've made some amazing progress so far that I'm truly proud of and thankful for. So today after yet another disappointing workout, I just took a walk to think it all over. And I realized that I've turned it into some kind of desire to get everything right. I've become lost in the numbers and become too focused on everything I'm not getting right.

So I've managed to take this thing that I absolutely love and turn it into this impossible challenge that only seems to keep letting me down. How many times do we do that in life? We even take this simple process of living and turn it into this mess of what we do wrong, what we need to fix, what we should have done differently, and a ton of other truly unhelpful thoughts. We get it in our minds that we have to be perfect in order to improve or be happy. And if that's the case, then happiness will never ever be found.

When you really stop and think about it, nothing in life is about being perfect. Our faith is the perfect example of that. Christ didn't die on that cross for a bunch of people who never messed up. He did it for all of us scumbags that couldn't make a good decision if our lives depended on it. He didn't give us all of these lessons and all this help because we were already perfect. He did it because He knows that we need the help.

We need to lighten up and stop this foolish quest for perfection. As this verse points out, nobody on this earth is perfect. We all make mistakes every single day. We all do things the hardest way possible. We all pick the worst choice available. We say, do, and think things that we shouldn't. We slip up and let our human flaws show. But it's okay. As Christ himself tells us in Mark chapter 2, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

So it's okay that we're not perfectly righteous. He's not looking for that. It's okay that we're all broken sinners because that's who He came for. Now that's not saying that we should just keep on being these messed up little heathens. That's absolutely not the case. It's just showing that it's okay to not be perfect. It's okay to mess up because it's in those messes that we learn the most. It's our mistakes that help us get even better. If we all got everything right all the time, then we wouldn't have room to grow and improve. And where's the fun in that?

Look, God knows that we're not perfect and that we never will be. He knows that we can all do better and need to fix some things. Best of all, He's ready and willing to help. We just need to stop trying to get there by ourselves. We need to stop plowing ahead thinking that we can make it alone. We can't. Again, we will never be perfect, but we can always be better. And that's the whole point! Not perfection, but growth. 

Becoming focused on getting everything right will only lead to frustration and disappointment when we inevitably don't. But fixing our eyes on Christ and continuing to improve and grow little by little will make it so much easier to keep going. And friends, that's exactly what He needs us to do! He doesn't need our perfection, just our willingness to keep trying.