Have you ever heard the phrase “perfect is boring”? While I can understand where such a sentiment could be coming from, I just can’t agree with it.
Why should something perfect be boring? If it’s boring, it wouldn’t be perfect at all.
Perfection is wholeness, beauty, truth, wisdom and everything that is good. When something is perfect, we can’t help but admire it. We aspire for it! That’s what we naturally do.
Think about heaven and its perfection where God will wipe away our every tear. In that perfect place, there will be no more sickness, sorrow or death. Heaven takes away our pain, fears, misunderstandings and countless frustrations (even boredom!) and replaces them with ever new joys and inexhaustible love.
Think about Jesus Christ Himself who is perfect. There is nothing boring about Him. On the contrary, we find in Him Someone who is most beautiful and alive. His life was filled with meaning, compassion and light. His perfection never diminished His humanity.
It is not perfection that is the enemy but our imperfect understanding of it.
Perhaps people confuse our unrealistic drive towards perfection with perfection itself. While there is nothing wrong with perfection, we could be wrong in our assumptions about it.
This is quite evident in our spiritual growth. While we were commanded to “be perfect” (Matthew 5:48), we are not expected to be perfect instantly or through our own efforts alone.
Perfection in the spiritual sense often involves many stages of development that happens through time. We also can’t achieve it without God’s grace. It is wrong to expect it instantly from ourselves or from other people. But it is also wrong to be content with our imperfection and to give up hope in God’s wonderful plan for us.
Let us not exhaust ourselves in trying to do what we cannot do on our own. On the other hand, let us not misunderstand God’s command.
Let us not use as an excuse the difficulty of trying to be perfect to remain in our sins and our weaknesses. On the other hand, let us offer all our miseries to God who is filled with mercy and love. He will never give up on those who hope in Him!
“I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus.” - Philippians 1 (NABRE)
“But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust… be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” - Matthew 5 (NABRE)
O Lord, protect my heart that I may not go astray. Let me never think that perfection is something undesirable or unreachable.
Open my eyes so that I may have a glimpse of your perfection. Let me look forward to that perfect day where there will be no more darkness, no more evil, no more selfishness and no more pain.
Let me have the hope of heaven where meeting you face-to-face shall finally bring me towards infinite happiness, ever new wonders and perfect everlasting love. Amen.
You may also want to read my article on Patheos: 7 Reasons Heaven Would Be Different From This Life
Learn more about heaven from my book “What Should You Look Forward To In Heaven?”
