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| Thankful that I'm imperfect (yeah, you heard me right) |
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As I sang along (very loudly) with the youth group...
You are beautiful my sweet, sweet song
You are beautiful my sweet, sweet song
You are beautiful my sweet, sweet song
I will sing again
...I had the impression of praising a perfectly righteous, perfectly compassionate, and perfectly loving Savior God. He is beautiful and I exalt Him, because I recognize how holy and mighty He is! That means I also recognize how woefully imperfect, small, and insignificant I am by comparison!
In order to live a life that is pleasing to the Lord, I draw on His strength each morning, and I go back to the well repeatedly throughout the day on most days. If only Jesus death could make me perfect now, so that the rest of life could simply be a matter of remaining where He wants me. However, if I were perfect I really don’t know that my love for Him would survive.
Each time I go to God for forgiveness, each time I fall short and need to recognize that all-satisfying atonement again, the deep appreciation of His loving provision (the Lamb) is refreshed in me. If there was no messing up, no daily need of His forgiveness and grace, the motivation for living would not be loving appreciation, would it? It seems like it might be replaced by a fear of failure, or something else like it. And how devastating would that failure be if I told people that God had made me perfect, then I fell back?
This may sound odd, but I am actually thankful for my imperfections in this life. His strength is made perfect in my weakness – amen! This means I must go daily to the Lord seeking forgiveness, mercy and grace (Luke 11:4), daily recognizing that he loves me in spite of the things I do that displease Him. Appreciation makes it very easy to exalt Him! |
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| To add a comment to "Thankful that I'm imperfect (yeah, you heard me right)" |
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| June 24, 2007 |
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Isn't it awesome that before the World was formed He knew we would never be perfect on our own. But giving himself for us, becoming the head that we might become His body, he has provided a way for us to be like Him in eternity to come. Death is but the door to perfection. On this side of the door we must commune with the One who holds the keys to death, hell, and the grave. Mike, if we were perfect on this side, what would be the purpose of going through the door? Good blog. Dance like no one is watching, sing like no one is listening, and live like today is your last. Love you Bro.~YPC |
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| June 25, 2007 |
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| Welcome to my world,when i was younger i thought i had to be perfect in everything i did and when i wasn't it was unbearable. Then Jesus came into my heart and showed me that i'm not nor will i ever be perfect until the day i am made perfect in his presence........... i can wait for awhile.lol Every day with Jesus is better than the day before. |
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| June 25, 2007 |
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| Thanks for the comments, Chris & Rosie, they are very appreciated! I'm particularly curious about your (or anyone's) reactions to the underlined sentence in the second paragraph after the song lyrics. To me this is more than an admission that I'm not perfect, but a chief reason why I'm actually glad that I'm not. Do you feel the same? |
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| June 25, 2007 |
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No. God is perfect. God is Love. Therefore if I were perfect I would think I would have no problem loving. It's only when we think we are perfect and find out that we're not that we have issues. |
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| June 25, 2007 |
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Hey Norm, g'morning!
That's an interesting point. I was looking at the question personally though, but it sounds as if you are reasoning theologically. God is love, therefore love is who God is. But that isn't who we are. Therefore, unlike God, we need something to motivate us to love. If I were able to be totally perfect through and through, I wonder what that would do for my motivation to love God. Does that make sense? |
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| June 25, 2007 |
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| I think if i were perfect i would feel no need for God because i would be able to get all that i need with out Him isn't that what caused the devil to fall he thought he was perfect and superior to God???????? |
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| June 25, 2007 |
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| That was my same reaction, Rosie. Why would I need God if I were perfect. I wonder how empty it would feel to be perfect and not know God. |
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| June 25, 2007 |
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| So Rosie, and Youth Pastor, would you say that God made us imperfect (through sin), in an imperfect world, so that we would need Him more? Is it safe to say that? Anyway, I always tried to be perfect, and I will tell you, it can give you ulcers. I am not perfect, I am ok with that, but I still want to do my best. Good post Mike. |
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| June 25, 2007 |
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What I was saying is all of this is theoritical. Therefore, if I'm being theoritical, it's best to look at the evidence I do have. God is perfect, Jesus is perfect and the Holy Spirit is perfect. Outside of that what do I have? Does God NEED us? I would have to say no. Does God still love us? Yes. Is God perfect? Yes. Round 2 Does Jesus need God? I would posit yes. We could argue this point and you can make me pull out scripture if you want. Does Jesus love God? Yes. Was Jesus perfect? Yes. Round 3 Do we need God? Yes. Do we love God? Depends on who you ask. Are we perfect? No. ----------- So therefore since we are being theoritical, the only conclusion (with what is admittedly limited data) I can come to is that it's in imperfection that we fail to love. :) Furthermore, I would argue that it is only *after* we get past the fact that we love someone because we need them, that we truly can begin to love. (Mike the marriage guy could probably speak to that. ;) ) |
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| June 26, 2007 |
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| I didn't say God made us imperfect just so we would need Him...But because of the fall of man we are imperfect even God tells us we are that's why He sent Jesus to resue us from our selves. ILove Him for what He did for me on the cross and i need Him daily for that same reason because the enemy is out to get you one way or another but if i was perfect then i wouldn't need Jesus to do anything for me at all i could handle it on my own the enemy wouldn't be able to tempt me in any way so there for i'd not need God...........................But this is the real world and i'm not perfect...I amsaved ..yes.. perfect no.........................Need Jesus Deffantly...Want Jesus.. Oh Yeah...... |
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| June 26, 2007 |
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| Rosie, IMHO I couldn't agree more with your comment made June 25, 2007 at 9:49am. At least, that is totally how I feel (apparently YPC too). Since my imperfection drove me to Christ, and keeps me there, this is why I am thankful for it!!! Thanks for posting! (And of course, thanks to ALL who have posted, I cherish the feedback!) ~mike |
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| June 26, 2007 |
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We can not say that God is omniscient and deny that he knew we would turn out imperfect. I think wewould all agree to that. We can also agree that there are some things about God we will not understand fully until He reveals them to us.
Norm: I'll take you conclusion a step further- God said, "It is not good for man to be alone..." There is a perfect picture of what you just concluded. We do need people in our lives, and once we admit that we can truly love them. We do need a Savior in our lives, and once we admit that we can truly start to understand love. |
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| June 26, 2007 |
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WOW! I had never really thought about wether or not if I were perfect would I still love God the same?.. But I agree, I think it would be a whole lot easier to not love Him than to love Him because I wouldn't really "need" Him if I were perfect as He is. I think God gave us the power to choose because think about it...All/Most daddy's want their kids to want to be like them. (not that daddy's are perfect, they aren't) But if a daddy had to force/make hid child be like him, would it be as fufilling as knowing that they themselves are choosing to strive to be like you. I think He wants us to be perfect like Him..But He wants us to want to be like Him in everyway... Make any sense?...well, thats just my thought.
Like you said Mike...His strength is made perfect in my weaknesses!!!
Thanks Mike----wonderful thought!! |
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| June 26, 2007 |
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| I wonder why perfect people need glasses? |
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| June 26, 2007 |
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| Tabitha, speaking of the kid/parent analogy, "choosing to strive to be like you" even as they continue to fall short. That to me is the epitome of choosing out of a motive of love, as opposed to selfish motives (how you make them feel about themselves, or what they get out of the deal). You're onto something there, thanks for carrying my thoughts further along! ~mike |
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| June 26, 2007 |
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I'm asking honestly because I don't understand. Or maybe I'm misunderstanding the last bit of banter. What evidence is there that perfection means less ability to love for the right reasons? Perfection would mean the exact opposite to me. When I think of issues with loving my neighbor, I think of ways to get more perfect (which granted is usually to pray for forgiveness. :) ). So if I were perfect I wouldn't love my neigbors? |
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| June 26, 2007 |
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BTW, reading the other "similar" blog called to mind this question. If God calls us to be perfect, is He therefore calling us to love Him less? |
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| June 27, 2007 |
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The only way to truely judge perfection is by the life that Christ lived. So if we were like Christ to the point of the perfection that he lived His life, we would be saturated with love for one another as well as for our Father. But, He (Christ) chose to do His Father's will. If we were all perfect would we choose the same route or would our own desires and will come into play? God wants us to want to strive to be like Him. He wants us to make the choice. I think it's a "daddy" thing....
But isn't it awesome that even though we are not perfect, despite all our downfalls and blemishes... that He STILL shows Himself strong on our behalf. Again, I'm sure... a "daddy" thing....
I love my Daddy!!
It's not that He is looking for perfection in our lives, I think more than that, He is looking for precision. |  |
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| June 27, 2007 |
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Norm, is He therefore calling us to love Him less? Obviously, no. He calls us to perfection b/c His nature is such that He can't ask us to be anything less, yet in great His mercy He's provided the means for us to be acceptable in our "less than perfect" state, i.e. substitutionary atonement.
Tabitha, great comment! Though you may have to explain the use of the word "precision". (I followed up to that point.) Together we say "Abba Father!" ~mike |
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| June 27, 2007 |
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I did a spoof on this blog, I just couldn't help myself. I think you will find it interesting nonetheless. Blessings, Pastor Mike |
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| June 27, 2007 |
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Mike (not Pastor), I was going for cause and effect, not cause, cause. Rewording slightly, does that mean by calling us to perfection he is causing us to love him less? If I were to believe this if I were perfect I really don’t know that my love for Him would survive I would have to say the answer to that is "Yes". That is one of the reasons I believe the answer is "No". |
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| June 27, 2007 |
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precision: with accuracy; exactness.
I think He is looking for us to follow Him with total accuracy and exactness (the way he wants.) and basicly follow the "cottn' pickn' instructions" in His Word. He isn't expecting perfection, He is however, expecting precision in our lives. (IMO) |
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| June 27, 2007 |
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I think there needs to be a statistic for post that spawned the most other posts. Actually I had thought about doing some game thing where each person would respond in the comments of the last person to respond, but given the navigation I'm not sure how well that would work. Plus I don't want to hit someone's profile in the middle of the night and because of their auto-play music and wake up my wife. :) I still think it's a cool idea, because it would allow people to get exposure and the popularity of the post would not be overtly obvious. But yeah... The navigation would be *ugly*. |
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| June 28, 2007 |
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That was my same reaction, Rosie. Why would I need God if I were perfect. I wonder how empty it would feel to be perfect and not know God.
So I guess when you have God you are a sinner? That does not make sense to me. God hates sin throughout scripture and we actually think that when we believe in Him and His power is upon us that we continue to do the things He hates.
Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?
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| June 29, 2007 |
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| I think I'm with Norm on this one. Even if I was perfect, which I am not, I would still recognize that I was created and therefore finite. I was created in the image of God, who is perfect, and as a created being can only possibly hope to be given perfection by the creator God. No perfection can exist apart from God, it can only exist in Him. All that to say...I think its a moot point :) |
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| June 29, 2007 |
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Zach, interesting point. I hear you saying you'd love God either way, given your status as a created being in relation to its Creator. Thanks for sharing your heart!
You also remind me that we shall be perfect, through and through, when we reach Heaven. And I am sure we who love God now will continue to love Him then, in fact far more, I'm sure, once we can stand in His glorious and majestic presence. We will receive a new (glorified) body, and be done with this body of sin.
So really the question in my mind was, what if I could attain perfection with this body/mind that I have now? True, God demands that we be perfect now, but He also knows that given our natural bloodline (the first Adam), we desperately need Him just to WANT to be perfectly sinless. And we can only start down that road towards perfection when we use the spiritual tools that He Himself provides!!! You see, the continual reliance on Him is necessary every step of the way, and the falling short is our way (or maybe His) of reminding ourselves that we need Him, hour by hour, minute by minute.
Great discussion!! ~mike |
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| June 29, 2007 |
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The thing is the definition of perfect. You're asking if you could be perfect without God. What does perfect mean? Without sin? Wasn't one of Jesus's command "Love your neighbor as yourself?" Or how about "You shall have no other Gods before me"? So wouldn't not loving God be a sin in itself? :) I still don't think I buy the whole if we are "perfect" that it means we'd love any less. What I've been trying to say is I don't think it's possible to be perfect and not love someone (God in this discussion) because we don't need them. I think that is completely contrary to the word "perfect". Or what do you mean by perfect? |
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| June 29, 2007 |
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Norm, I wasn't asking if I could be perfect w/o God (sorry). And yes, not loving God is sin.
By perfect, I simply meant reaching a state of apparent sinlessness, in this lifetime, with this body and mind. Zach jarred a thought or two loose, which I shared in the comment immediately preceding yours. Thanks for the discussion! ~mike |
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| June 30, 2007 |
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| Through talking to Mike in e-mail, I found out that my understanding of what he was saying was wrong. I didn't realize he meant "If we thought we were perfect" as opposed to "If we actually were perfect". Given that, I really don't have much more to say. I would actually remove my comments because they now seem silly, but that tends to make these harder to read. So when you read the above |
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| April 01, 2008 |
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| ...Therefore I will boast all the more gladly! Thanks Mike! I'm so glad that I am not perfect. :) |
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