Imperfection's Sting

   The problem with imperfection is how imperfectly it is viewed. There are those happy souls that take a “no worries” approach. They think nothing of  imperfection beyond the fact that every body’s doing it. At the opposite end of the human spectrum are dour souls who see imperfection as a personal failure and feel guilty for falling into it’s evil clutches. The devil thrives in extremes of all kinds.
     “Nobody’s perfect” is true, but it is not a license to live as you please. The very idea of imperfection requires a standard from which to fall short. We would not know imperfection exists without a fixed something to measure against. In our own case it is the ideal Man; the Man which each of us ought to be--but know we are not. To be less than we were created to be ultimately leads to disappointment.  We become disappointed with ourselves; our efforts to be more; and the displeasure it must give our Creator to see us suffer so.
    Christians that take their faith seriously are keenly aware--”it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.” If they should ever forget, there is no small supply of mockers and devils to remind them. The Accuser has no crueler weapon than one’s own conscious. For almost his entire life my father resisted becoming a Christian because he knew he could not be perfect. He knew sooner or later he would tell a lie or revert to the vocabulary of his youth. To his thinking, sin after conversion would make him a failure and a hypocrite.
    “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” is the command of Christ. Nevertheless, it is a goal--not the present reality. At present we are no more than unfired clay. While we are unfinished, we are not unmindful of that which we are becoming or the Spirit’s urging to perfection.
    “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.”
    “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.”