Scripture
Ecclesiastes 7:20: “Indeed, there is no one on earth who is righteous, no one who does what is right and never sins.”
James 3: 2 “We all stumble in many ways.”
2 Corinthians 12:9: “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”
Reflection
I grew up thinking that I needed to have the perfect life. But in order to do that I thought that I had to be the perfect person in order to have that life. Well, let’s be honest, as much as I tease my partner about how perfect I am, I know that I am far from it, I am imperfect in so many ways. I wonder how many of us look at our lives and see the flaws, the imperfections, the mistakes, rather than seeing ourselves as perfectly imperfect?
I was having a conversation, with a young person, the other day and as the conversation progressed I asked what they thought that they needed from me. In a quiet voice they responded with, “a different life.” It was rather sad to hear a young person speak about their life in such a manner, but as I have thought about this I realized that I was that young person many years ago. I also thought many times that I needed a different life, or at least a life where I didn’t make so many mistakes, where I was the person that others thought that I should be, especially during those times when my life was anything but perfect. I remember believing that I was inherently wrong, as a human being. As such I truly believed that I couldn’t be the person that I was, whom I now see that I was created to be. I remember vividly praying to God to take parts of myself, those parts that I believed were inherently wrong, away from me. Yet, for all my praying it seemed to me, at the time, that my prayer was not answered. I remember hearing a quote one time that has stuck with me throughout this later part of my life, it goes something like this, “in God we are always better than the worst thing that we have ever done.” I wonder how many people, like that young person, understand that they are always better than the worst thing that they have done.
We exist in a world of expectations. Society as a whole places so many expectations on each one of us. So many of these expectations are around who we should and shouldn’t be in our world. Now, I understand that in order to live together peacefully, not that that is what is happening, we need to have some sense of a common understanding around what is acceptable and what is not. But we are constantly bombarded by media that implies that is we don’t have the perfect life, then our lives are lacking. But I wonder if that perfect life even exists? Regardless, the world places so many expectations on us and how we are supposed to act, what we are supposed to do, how we are supposed to feel. But it goes beyond the wider world, doesn’t it? In some ways we are expected to know what others think, how they feel, what others believe we should be doing, and not doing, at any given moment. I know people who are so afraid of making, what they perceive to be, a wrong decision that they don’t make any decision at all. In reality that is not even living, it is just existing in the world.
It seems that for many of us, we live our lives trying to measure up to some ideal that we can’t seem to reach. The young person I was speaking about thought that their life was a complete failure because they had made some serious mistakes. They couldn’t seem to get beyond the mistakes that they made and in living in that space they started to define themselves by all the mistakes they have made throughout their life. I wonder what would happen if I only defined myself by the mistakes that I have made. What would you think of yourself if you defined yourself only by the mistakes that you made?
So many of us look at ourselves and see that we don’t measure up to what we believe others expect from us. It is almost as if many of us live our lives working to impress others. Yet who must we impress? Life becomes lighter when you stop trying to impress everyone and start appreciating everything. Peace does not come from having the perfect life. It comes from accepting the imperfect one with an open heart. Gratitude transforms ordinary days into treasured memories and reminds you that enough has always been more than you realize. It has taken me a long time, and if I am honest I don’t always succeed, to understand that in my perfectly imperfect life, I am enough, it is enough. I wonder how many of us recognize, in this world of expectations, that we are enough.
Prayer
God of Grace, help us to remember that we have been created by you, in love. As such give us the wisdom to remember that we are not perfect, that we will make mistakes, that sometimes our lives can feel like a mess, and we feel like we have failed. Give us the courage to face those times, to see them as they are, and to know that they never define who we are, that we are more than our mistakes. Help us to see that you, Gracious God, see who we are and that we are better than the worst thing that we have ever done. Help us to show that same grace to ourselves and those around us. We pray all of this in the name of the one who came to walk with us, your son, Jesus. Amen.
Peace and blessings,
Rev. Patrick Woodbeck
Minister Grey Street United/ Birds Hill United/ The Big Red Church (Gordon-King Memorial United)