Imperfect Perfection

Some friends of mine live on a horse farm with sprawling hills, scenic views and lush pastures. This of course translates into two words – "yard work". And growing up around my grandparents' farm, I'm all too happy to help trim, weed, cut, mow, mulch, clean, rake, shovel, tote, haul, spread....well, you get the idea.

Last weekend was no different. I push mowed the horse ring 'til it resembled the Number Nine green at St. Andrews' and conquered the uneven topography of the southern portion around the horse barn. Two sweat-soaked t-shirts later, I knew I'd given it a good effort. And for a Southern Indiana farm boy, that was a job well done.

On Monday morning I knew I'd get an unnecessary email of thanks for my efforts, because I enjoy helping them and it frees up time for them too do what they love, not mow step hills and battle weedy walks.

And sure enough, the email of thanks came, but at the bottom in capital letters it said, "WE APPRECIATE YOUR WORK….. BUT YOU NEED NOT DO THE WORK….. TAKE SOME TIME OFF…… WE ENJOY YOUR COMPANY AND WOULD LOVE TO SEE YOU JUST ENJOYING THE LAZINESS OF SUMMER….."

Wow, that was hard for me.

Me. Be "lazy"?

Do nothing?

See, I – just like a lot of you – am about a "job well done". I grew up in a family where sometimes, especially with my mom, it sometimes seemed like a "performance-based relationship". Do a good job on this or that and you'll be loved. Don't do a good job and you won't.

Been there too, huh?

Lemme ask you something, are you still there? With your boss? Your customers? Your spouse? Your parents? Friends?

Yeah, it's a tough standard to live up to, "perfect". Being the "perfect" wife. Pleasing your boss 100% of the time. Being "pleasing" to others. Making sure you live up to your family name and "do it proud".

Because trying to be perfect all the time will wreck you. Burn you out. Bring you down. You simply can't sustain it. You're going to say the wrong thing to your boss. Or not have that "sage advice" for a friend. Or disappoint your kids from time to time no matter how hard you try. You're going to stumble, sometimes even fall on your walk through life.

And that's ok.

A passage I've heard my friend Sean Micheal Murphy use many, many times is Romans 6:23: "The wages of sin[what we earn] is death, the free gift of God [what we do not earn] is eternal life."

Which of course means no matter how hard we try, we always fall short. We're just human – with real human struggles and emotions and setbacks and disappointments.

"The free gift of God is eternal life".

Free gift. From God. Telling you, "No matter who you are, where you are, what you are, I love you. I LOVE YOU. You don't need to work for this one, I enjoy you and want to spend forever with you."

Read that again. Say it out loud to yourself. Go ahead, we all need to hear it.

Feels pretty good, doesn't it?

So this week, I challenge you to put the "to do" list in a drawer. Shut off the mower. Set the TPS reports aside and spend some earnest quality time with God, enjoying the warmth of His promise and his Gift. It may be hard at first, but make your "job" enjoying that fact.

I promise it'll be the most important thing you get done all week.