Imperfectly Perfect

All of us want to be good and perfect or to be seen by others to be so. Unfortunately, the moment we are successful in doing good, we fail as pride creeps in and the good we do become the enemy of the best that God wants for us. This is the result of our sinful human nature which has been well documented by the apostle Paul in his letter to the Romans:

"The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. I don't really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead I do what I hate."

The harder we try to be perfect, the more imperfect we become. I was reminded by Rev Jenni Ho-Huan in the daily devotion for Lent today that "we must confess that not only are we disappointed with others; we have often disappointed others too. When we look at our lives and our churches, sometimes we can get disheartened."

But the good news is that we are imperfectly perfect when we are in Jesus Christ. Each one of us is unique and special in the eyes of our Heavenly Father. Our problems stem from our tendency to compare ourselves or loved one's with others.

Shauna Niequist perceptively noted that we compare ourselves to another person, we always lose, and the other person also loses at the same time. She drew attention to the truth that "each of us has been created by the hands of a holy God. Our stories and the twists and turns of our lives, the things that are hard for us and the things that come naturally are as unique to us as our own fingerprints."

And so the surest way to have a miserable life is to measure our lives by the lives of others instead of giving thanks for the blessings in our lives. We fill our minds with resentment when we complain instead of seeking to be part of the solution rather than being part of the problem. We fill our hearts with hatred when we condemn instead of being the channels of love by trying to understand one another. We waste our time criticizing others instead of spending time examining ourselves. We compound the problems in society when we condone wrongdoing instead of speaking the truth in love.

Jesus came to set us free from our sinful nature so that we can live as the imperfectly perfect children of God with our hearts filled with His love by the Holy Spirit. The opening song of the movie, Joyful Noises, makes the point that "there's not enough love in our hearts." It is therefore so important to keep our hearts in tune with God so that the melody of God's love will be the song of our lives.

Life is bittersweet

“And since we are His children, we are His heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share His glory, we must also share His suffering.” Romans 8:17

Life is bittersweet for we are imperfect human beings living in an imperfect world. St Paul in his letter to the Romans draws attention to a very important truth – that if we are to share God’s glory, we must also share the suffering of Christ. Enjoying the rights and privileges of being the children of God and heirs of His Kingdom comes from living out our responsibilities to honor God’s Name and to do His will on earth as it is in heaven.

Shaun Niequist described bittersweet as “the idea that in all things there is both something broken and something beautiful, that there is a sliver of lightness on even the darkest of nights, a shadow of hope in every heartbreak, and that rejoicing is no less rich when it contains a splinter of sadness.” She noted that it is only when one has faced some kind of death and has our heart really broken – the loss of a beloved, broken dreams and fractured relationships – that one can appreciate the gospel of death and rebirth.

Ron Dunn rightly described the mystery of good and evil as the mixture of good and evil. We "idealize life" when our faith is based on our thinking that "if God is really working in our lives, nothing but good will come down." When our lives become stormy, we tend to react like the disciples who found Jesus sleeping at the back of the boat when they encountered a fierce storm. In our despair, we cry out, "Lord, don't you care that we're going to drown?" (Mark 4:35-38).

But the good news of Easter is that by the power of the Holy Spirit, we will be able to face the trials and tribulations of life with the peace that is beyond human understanding. We will be like Peter who was able to sleep even though he was fastened with two chains between two soldiers waiting to be tried and put to death (Acts 12:6).

All of us will have both sweet and bitter times in life. The question is how we are living through such times. We can become addicted to the sweet times and seek to make our lives sweeter even at the expense of others. Or we can celebrate our sweet times with thanksgiving and use our blessings to be a blessing to others.

We can live in fear of bitter times and let our bitter times turn us into bitter persons – we can be like Naomi who changed her name to Mara when she felt that God had made life very bitter for her (Ruth 1:20). Or we can build our lives on the Rock of Christ so that we will be prepared to face the storms of life. Only then will our faith not collapse like a pack of cards in the storms of life. Instead, in bitter times we can pray as Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane:

"My Father! If this cup cannot be taken away unless I drink it, your will be done. (Matthew 26:42)

Hannah Whithall Smith lamented that "it really would seem as if God's own children were more afraid of His will than of anything else in life….. If we but for one moment get a glimpse into the mighty depths of His love, our hearts would spring out to meet His will and embrace it as our richest treasure; and we would abandon ourselves to it with an enthusiasm of gratitude and joy that such a wondrous privilege could be ours."

True faith is not about what we believe in but about the faithfulness and everlasting Love of God. We will never be able to understand God’s ways but we can hold fast to our belief that His ways are far beyond anything we can imagine (Isaiah 55:8). The devil will seek to convict us of our unfaithfulness but the good news is that Christ died to set us free so that we can walk in newness of life as children of God in both the sweet times of life as well as the bitter times.

Shaun Niequist gave the following wise advice:

“When life is sweet, say thank you and celebrate. And when life is bitter, say thank you and grow.”

The hymn, O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go, was written by George Mathieson when he lost his eyesight as well as his fiancée. May the following verse inspire us to live the bittersweet life:

"O joy that seekest me through pain,

I dare not shut my heart to Thee

I'll trace the rainbow through the rain,

And feel the promise is not in vain

That morn shall tearless be.

From Fear To Love

"They trust in their wealth and boast of great riches. Yet they cannot redeem themselves from death by paying a ransom to God. Redemption does not come so easily, for no one can ever pay enough to live forever and never see the grave"

(Psalm 49:6-9)

The psalmist paints a stark reminder of the fate of all human beings - rich or poor, wise or fools. In his letter to the Romans, Paul draw our attention to the relationship between sin and death:

“When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. Yes, people sinned even before the law was given. But it was not counted as sin because there was not yet any law to break. Still, everyone died – from the time of Adam to the time of Moses – even those who did not disobey an explicit commandment of God, as Adam did.” (Romans 5:12-14)

The story of Adam and Eve is to help us understand life and death by recognizing the reality of the spiritual dimension of life. Adam is our human nature - seeking to live a life without God - a life that is focused on trying to add years to one's life on earth. It is a life that is under bondage to the forces of evil that enslave us through our fear of death.

Jesus came to set us free from the fear of death and suffering by opening the way to God's throne of grace. Through Christ our relationship with God as our Heavenly Father is restored so that we can add life to our moments, days, weeks, months or years. In Christ we can do so whether we are young or old, rich or poor, healthy or sick.

Jesus came to transform our superstitious fear of God to a healthy reverential awe of God as our Creator as well as our loving Heavenly Father. We are then empowered to walk in God's ways and seek His will because we want to love Him with all our minds, our hearts and our souls.

But we will encounter the "desert" experiences of life and the dark night of the soul in the surrender of all that we are and all that we have to the will of God. Lent is a time to remind us that the road to eternal life is not a shortcut from suffering but a path through suffering. David Rensberger noted that the lesson of the desert is that we need to remain attentive to God and to stay utterly dependent on Him. As we do so, our neurotic fear of God will be transformed to a vibrant love for God.

Lent is therefore a time to refocus our attention on God instead of ourselves. Jesus taught us to pray, "Our Heavenly Father, hallowed be Your Name," so that we will not be afraid of God but we will be fearful of dishonoring His Name. We will become lovers of God who want to honour Him instead of trying to be performers of the world seeking the approval of men.