The Pursuit For Perfection

Are you perfect?  Do you want to be?

For just 4 easy payments of $99.95 (including S&H)… you, too, can be perfect.

Sound familiar?

We all get sucked into the pursuit of perfection at some point in our lives.  We want it all!  We want it now!  We want the best!  But deep down we know perfection is short-lived (if at all) and unattainable at the levels we’re desiring.

Regardless, we still strive for:

• A flawlessly clean home… spotless
• A picture-perfect tanned and toned body
• Children who are high-functioning, over-achievers (usually not by choice)
• A marriage which appears ideal and enviable
• A reputation of having it all together
• A faultless relationship with God… both in our minds and in the eyes of others

Any of those make you cringe?  I know… me, too.  Ouch, right?

But I’m not sure that’s enough to stop us, because if we were honest with each other… we’d admit that we love what this world has to offer.

Now understand, there’s nothing wrong with working towards being a better ____ or being better at ____.  Where we get into trouble is when the pursuit for perfection becomes our focus… and we allow our happiness and contentment to depend on it.

God speaks to us about this in 1 Timothy 6:5-6.  “But godliness with contentment is great gain.  For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.“ (well, I’m pretty sure I can take my cats… just need divine clearance first)

All the earthly perfection we are striving for will never make to heaven with us.  It… stays… here.  You don’t.

I think this scripture is the key to your personal fulfillment.  You see… done right… God should be at the center of your desires, your striving.  You should be excited to see what He’s doing in your life.

Knowing God should be of the highest priority, not the perfect life.  Is it?

Or are you striving to find contentment and happiness in what the world has to offer you.  Looking to achieve the kind of perfection that gets a “nod” from society.  Striving for status.

I want to suggest that maybe we relentlessly strive for worldly perfection to fill an empty place inside of us.  We’re each made with a God-shaped hole that only He can fill.  When we try to fill it with anything other than Him… we are discontent.

When discontent… we find other things to fill us up.  To make us feel better… feel more important.

The antidote?

Matthew 6:33 says, “But seek first His kingdom and his righteousness…“

Seek Him… Not this world.