You don’t have to be perfect.
I don’t have to be perfect.
Perhaps we need reminders like little Post-It Notes stuck everywhere.
Perfect is the enemy of good. It’s also the enemy of relaxed, calm, confident. Perhaps also joy.
Sometimes we build a church with expectations that everyone within is perfect. Maybe we try to hide imperfections. We don’t want our imperfections to be found out.
Pretending to be perfect helps us when we want to point out some group of people and say, “We must exclude them, for they are sinners—they are not perfect…like us.”
Face it. The perfect life is beyond our power. We are not going to have
- The perfect diet
- The perfect workout
- The perfect prayer life
- The perfect relationship
Relax. Eat well, and if you eat something not on the perfect diet, well, so be it. As long as you mostly eat well. A little mistake while cooking may lead to a better taste. And trying to make other people perfect, well, that is only annoying to them and frustrating to you.
Look at the people Jesus surrounded himself with. Not a one was perfect. Even after the resurrection and receiving his final instructions, they still were not perfect. And they wrote books and letters showing they were not perfect. Yet, they changed the world.
Relax. Live in the moment. Build healthy habits. Orient yourself in the right direction. And if something slips once in a while, live with it.
You and I? We’re not perfect.
Faith Venture 
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