May 4, 2019
So we have officially made it to May!!! That means the final stretch for the school year and man, am I excited! April and May are always the craziest months for me, but I am thankful for the ability to just take it day-by-day. A few years ago, the amount of homework I have and my long to-do lists would have literally spiraled me into a meltdown. I actually have had quite a few of those in the past. However, I learned quickly I couldn’t do the insane schedule and loads of work on my own. I had to learn the peace that comes in daily surrender and a day-by-day mindset, and for that lesson, I am so grateful! Praise Jesus. Moving on, in this month’s blog, I really wanted to come on here to share a bit of a revelation I had this morning. Well, actually back track to a few weeks ago, a great friend of mine told me in a conversation that my goals of being perfect would cause me to miss out on a lot in life. I’m not going to lie; his words kind of sucked at first. I don’t love being called out, and I really don’t love being called out on something I know I need to work on. Of course, I need to hear words like those because growth comes with criticism in many cases, but at first, I didn’t want to acknowledge the truth in his words. Therefore, I kind of pushed them out of my brain until again, my ideal of perfection was brought up again this morning. God has a funny way of doing that. For context, I go to hot yoga every Saturday morning. It’s my one hour of sanity in the week, and I love it. However, by no means would I say I am great at yoga or embody a “yogi” as some call it. There is always room for improvement in yoga, and I have nowhere near mastered the practice. Despite this fact, a person came up to after yoga this morning and said that I’m really good at it and said that I was even teaching them how to do some of the moves in the class. I was a bit surprised because, again, I don’t think I’m that great at it. Additionally, every week after the class, the instructor recites some type of inspirational passage. Sounds weird, but I promise it’s not. It’s quite zen actually, despite the crazy heat in the room. Today, one of the last sentences she read off was “perfection isn’t a prerequisite for anything but pain.” That really stuck with me. Therefore, in light of thinking about this statement, when the person came up to me after class, I was immediately taken to thoughts about how I was nowhere near perfect at yoga even though it was a flattering compliment. Yet, as I have reflected on this throughout the day, I can’t help but take away something bigger from my morning at yoga. When I am so stuck on trying to be perfect, I miss out on the beauty of the progress I have made, as noted by the stranger. When we focus on what we haven’t accomplished, we miss out on celebrating what we have! What I have learned is that there is always something, if not invaluably more, to be learned in the imperfection than in perfection. In fact, I could never learn anything from being perfect. Just the idea of being perfect is completely improbable as a human. I’m slowly learning that it’s okay to not try to be perfect. After all, it’s an impossible goal. As long as I keep trying to be perfect, I will keep being disappointed and pained by my inability to reach my goal. My background on my phone is now “‘perfection isn’t a prerequisite for anything but pain,’ for Christ’s love in me is the only prerequisite I need.” My prayer and daily battle is to let Christ determine my worth and my purpose. No semblance of perfection in my words, thoughts, actions, or life could ever amount to satisfaction and food for my soul because I will fall short every time. As humans, we will all fall short. every. single. time. So, the only real remedy to my battle, and maybe it’s yours too, is to find our worth not in our goals of perfection, but rather in how Christ views us. It is far past time for us to take hold of the truth that God’s “power is made perfect in weakness.” Oh, how great the day would be that I could say with 100% confidence this statement that Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12:9: “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” Don’t miss this: Christ’s power in us is made FULL and shines the BRIGHTEST in our shortcomings and in our weaknesses. Day by day and through reminders like my friend’s comment and mornings like today at yoga, I am reminded of God’s promise to be with us in our weakness. It is through the words of our friends and even strangers that He is faithful to point out our heart’s rough spots and to provide a gentle nudge towards Him, knowing that He has the sole power to bring restoration. His faithfulness provides all the hope and strength we could ever need to fight our daily battle in becoming better disciples of Christ.
With love,
C