Work hard and cheerfully at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and the Master you are serving is Christ. Colossians 3:23-24
John Quincy Adams was the sixth President of the United States, a diplomat, senator, congressman, and legislator. But when he reflected on his life at the age of 70 he said, "My life has been a succession of disappointments. I can scarcely recollect a single instance of success in anything I ever undertook.”
Amazing! Adams was extremely successful by any standard, but he seems to have been haunted by a standard of perfection. 150 years later, American culture continues to foster the attitude that perfectionism is not only desirable, but possible! Our culture tells us that if we are not the best at what we do, someone else is just over our shoulder ready to take our place.
Our culture also promotes the idea that failure is unacceptable, so there's little freedom for experimentation.... The result is that usually that when something isn't up to par in our work, people aren't offered help but ridiculed, replaced, demoted, or fired instead.
Give yourself a break: perfection is unattainable. While we pursue excellence in all things as Christ-followers, our goal isn't perfection--it's to do everything for him. Excellence honors God, but an unhealthy pursuit of perfection—one that either disregards any success along the way or comes at the cost of integrity—leads to disappointment.
God doesn’t love us any more or any less when we are or aren’t perfect. That's encouraging! His love isn't based on performance, but on choosing to simply love us for who we are.
No comments:
Post a Comment