The Perfect Protest

"Don't try to win over the haters.  You're not the jackass whisperer" (Scott Stratten).  Best (insert stifled chuckle).  Quote (insert gasping attempts to restrain the inevitable).  Ever (insert explosive, unladylike snort-laugh).  So much truth in twelve good words.  In the moments when I obediently pander to my people-pleasing self, I submit to the temporary insanity of a drab existence wherein the joy of authentically being myself is lost.

I suspect that for most of us, our most vicious 'haters' are the dismal, disembodied ghosts of our own ruminations.  "My greatest creative barriers are the groups of squatters that take up space in my head.  They lay around all day, shouting their bad advice and accusations, they don't work, they don't pay rent, they just talk, talk, talk" (Myriam Joseph).  It's little wonder that each of us is our own toughest critic.  Our culture assures us that nobody's perfect, and then advises us that practice makes perfect, and admires that which is picture perfect.  "Perfectionism is a twenty-ton shield that we lug around thinking it will protect us when, in fact, it’s the thing that’s really preventing us from taking flight" (Brene Brown).

The zealous biblical scholars among us might point out that Jesus himself directed, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matthew 5:48)  But the writer of Hebrews reminds us that no one achieves perfection through adherence to moral standards (law) - that is, through self-improvement, self-help, or self-justification (7:19).  Perfectionism is just poorly disguised pride that pouts like a pathetic three year-old's "I can do it myself!"  Quite the opposite is true: "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" (2 Corinthians 12:9).

I am beloved.  I am complete.  I am not perfect.  And when I live in pursuit of perfection, what I reap is a mind full of chaos - an emotional perfect storm.  "You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you" (Isaiah 26:3).  Perfectionism knows no rest.  The essence of trust is rest.  So cease and desist your jackass whispering, evict your squatters (or at least demand retroactive rent payments), and get on with living.  I am too alive to be perfect.

Quotes from Brene Brown's blog.  For more like this... see www.ordinarycourage.com.