Living Consciously: perfection

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5:48

At the end of my last post I wrote that humans are imperfect. That’s quite true, but I also like to argue that the opposite can be true: humans can be perfect.

In order for this to make any sense, I have to redefine perfection. The debate then shifts away from whether or not humans can be perfect and toward whether or not my definition of perfection is adequate. If you accept my definition of perfection, then you also have to agree that humans can be perfect.

As a Christian, I view God’s will as perfection. It’s the highest way that the world can operate. If nothing but God’s will happened, then the world would be entirely perfect. All the other definitions of perfection really only grasp at the heels of God’s perfection. When we label flowers as perfect or plans as perfect or a day as perfect, we are judging on a very limited scale. We judge outwardly and at only one point in time. The perfection of God’s will digs deeper than we can imagine and stretches farther into time than we can dream.

If that is “perfection,” then humans can be perfect. At any time, any person can be used by God to fulfill God’s will. It doesn’t matter where you’ve been or what you’ve done or who you are, God can use you exactly as you are to accomplish a part of God’s perfect will, and therefore, you can be perfect.

I’m being careful using “can be perfect” and not “are perfect.” See, humans mess up. At any moment we can be perfectly used for God’s will, but often we miss those moments. We aren’t obedience or we lack the faith to step out and do something or say something. For example, one time I was in McDonalds. I was heading out the door actually, when I saw a teenage girl sitting by herself crying. I knew nothing about her, but her emotion came like a wave over me. Compassion was stirred up in me. And I walked out of the restaurant, got into my car, and drove away.

I was yelling at myself as I drove home. Right then I was perfectly positioned to fulfill God’s will. I don’t know what it would have been. Maybe I should have just walked by and put a hand on her shoulder. Maybe I should have sat in the chair across from her. Maybe I should have asked if I could pray for her. I was afraid of what she’d think or what others would think. I was afraid of getting involved in something that I knew nothing about. I’ll probably harbor a little regret about that moment for the rest of my life. I could have been perfect there. But I wasn’t.

Even if I had been perfect there, I would have been imperfect later. As humans, we can be perfect, but we never will be entirely. I’m a numbers kind of guy and sometimes I wish I knew my perfection percentage. I feel like it’d be pretty low, like 3%. Then I could set goals for myself to increase a percentage point every month or something like that. Although part of me wishes fulfilling God’s will would be that concrete, I’m really glad it’s not.

Here’s the good news: when we aren’t perfect God still loves us. And I think God’s love is the kind that sees our potential in an overly optimistic way. We may fall in line with God’s will 1% of the time, but God says, “I love you and I’ll never stop working you into my will. I created you and I know you’ll be perfect next time.” We may be 1% perfect, but we’re all 100% loved. My little human brain won’t ever fully grasp that, but it’s beautiful.

All of this is why living consciously is so important to me. It’s why my last post tried to encourage people to action. I want to empower people. We can easily hide behind our churches. We tell ourselves, “My church is doing the will of God and I’m supporting my church by showing up and tithing, therefore I’m alright.” I think that’s where we’ve missed Jesus’ point. He didn’t come to create a religious organization for us to hide behind. He came to create followers, disciples, lovers of all. The church is a great way to get involved, but God wants you personally to be faithful and obedient. God wants you to believe and act on those beliefs. Together, with God, we can be perfect.

At least that’s how I see it.