Streams of Comfort

In this post I wrote down some of my deep thoughts about perfectionism and how it affects our lives. If you struggle with perfectionism, I hope that my thoughts are helpful. And that you are encouraged to look deeper into how it affects your life personally and how you can choose to rely on God.

Perfectionism is an impossible aspiration in life,
Due to the many circumstances that are beyond human control,
The only outcome when reaching for perfection is failure,
Because in some way or another,
You can always do better.
I think that we often present perfectionism as a noble sword,
Where in reality it is a rusted shield,
That is put up to protect us from failure.
Is perfectionism then fear of failure?
I don’t think so,
I would contend that it is a tool used to evade failure,
A way to defend against the arrows of life,
That come flying toward us now and then.
It is a shield that needs continual maintenance,
With dents and cracks constantly appearing in it,
That outpace our ability to keep it from falling apart,
Until we eventually come face to face with what we dread.
But what we dread isn’t necessarily bad for us,
We just want to simply avoid the things that make us feel bad,
Which generally is a good thing to do.
But if we consistently evade heartache and failure,
And refuse to taste even a morsel of the bitterness of life,
Can we truly grow?
Can we take any steps forward?
Maybe if we left this world,
Because the world as it is now cannot hold perfection,
And our evasion of what we fear paralyzes us.
Isn’t that what anxiety feels like?
The paralysis of the body and mind,
In negative emotions, thoughts, sensory experiences and feelings,
That prevent us from moving forward,
And stepping into the light.
Its ok to be in paralysis for a little while,
But we can’t remain there,
And I find that perfectionism has a way of taking us there,
If we let it direct the paths we walk.
When it comes to shielding ourselves from the arrows that fly towards us,
Those of us who reach for perfection,
Should instead take up the shield of Faith that the apostle Paul talked about,
A shield that we do not need to continually fix because God maintains it,
And gives us the freedom to keep moving forward.
When difficult things happen it’s good to cry,
It’s good to acknowledge all of our pain,
And I hope that all of us will do so,
And recognize that we are impossibly weak.
But it’s alright,
Its ok,
The Lord is immeasurably strong,
And it just so happens that his power is made perfect in weakness.