We seem to be driven in our culture today. Every where I look I see people and organizations pushing themselves to meet a standard or to produce a product that the whole world stop and admire with awe. We are all looking for it as if it was fading whisper of something that once was and that we desperately need again. In short, we are looking for perfection.  We advertise that it is out there. There is the perfect cup of coffee, the perfect golf swing, the perfect school, and even the perfect date.  This fixation on perfection must be the cause untold stress when we think we have found that perfect thing, only to be told by our friend, “I’ve seen or tasted better”.  Is perfection only a matter of opinion, or is it out there?

As a person of faith, I believe in a perfect God and that we were all once perfect. The saddest story in human history is the one in which we traded that perfection for a lie. We live in an imperfect world with imperfect people. We have all heard this most of our lives, usually when we discover life is not fair. Yet, we still strive for it and look for it. It has even bled into weekly spiritual lives. We all want the perfect church with perfect Christians. When we don’t get what we want we quickly leave or worse yet force someone else to leave. I think I remember a story about finding a speck in someone else’s eye before removing the log form your own, but I digress. I know I wanted to run the perfect youth ministry for the last 20 years, but who decides.

The truth is perfection is not subjective. Jesus was and is perfect in every way. That is our standard with which we all fall short. Let me reiterate that, we all fall short. I know I have made huge mistakes in my life, but by grace I am still here. I love grace, don’t you? As a matter of fact, the more I travel this road the more I see my failings and the more I appreciate grace. The kingdom of God is not made up of perfect people. It is made up of broken people being perfected by the grace and power of God. Our churches and ministries must be places where brokenness is not only allowed but strived for. Maybe that is where perfection comes in. When we are broken before the perfect God only then can we be perfected. IT is like chipping away all the junk to form a perfect diamond. God has the hammer and chisel waiting. It is at times going to be painful and not always make sense, but his goal is to bring us to perfection. The question is will we let perfection do its work in us? Will be come before our Creator not only broken, but perfectly broken?

Let our ministries and lives reflect the brokenness of this world.  Perfection is coming again. God promise a day that all will be restored. There will come a day and it will be a perfect day, but until then let our brokenness be evident and we continue to strive for that perfect cup of coffee.