There will always be more dirt. Have you ever tried to clean something, say a house, a car, your room, even your teeth to perfection? Those who have this obsessive perfectionist attitude never find peace. Anxiety keeps taping them on the shoulder whispering ‘there’s always more dirt’.
Susan had been a Christian for a few years now. She had walked the talk, kept the rules, painted the smile on the face for everyone to see. There was a storm inside though. Life wasn’t going as well as she portrayed. The backstage of her life was a mess. People just saw Susan as a bundle of problems and tried to avoid her, lest they become contaminated.
As she confessed her struggles to Pastor Bob he felt completely overwhelmed. He had already told her to pray harder, memorise these verses, forgive etc but nothing seemed to work. It was time to call in professional help! 'You need to go a counsellor’. Susan agreed and so off she went for some help.
It went well, Susan got in touch with what was really driving her behaviours. She was becoming more self aware. She was gaining new insights, applying them, learning new skills. The back stage was starting to get some order. The problem had been diagnosed, categorised and treatment commenced.
There was always new dirt though. Always more dirt to be uncovered, talked through and cleaned up. There was change and it was good, but not perfect.
Susan now had an insatiable desire to personally self fix what was wrong in her life. Did she need Christ to be the perfect one for her imperfections? Not really, truth be told, as she now had all the truth insights to self manage life quite well.
A couple of quotes have come into my thought blender recently.
There is a crack in everything God has made. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The men and women who are truly filled with light are those who have gazed deeply into the darkness of their own imperfect existence. Brennan Manning
Ralph and Brennan have it right. God created everything perfect, now everything is cracked and imperfect. We are all cracked! To the deepest point of our lives we are all flawed with sin.
Paul puts it this way.
Everyone has sinned. No one measures up to God's glory. 24 The free gift of God's grace makes all of us right with him. Christ Jesus paid the price to set us free. God gave him as a sacrifice to pay for sins. Romans 3:23 -25.
Therapy is good, it truly can help, but it’s not perfect unless the perfect one comes from within and shines out through the cracks of our flawed existence. Jesus, Daddy and Spirit still stand at the door of our lives and wait for us to dance with them.
Fix what is wrong. Good, but not great.
Next week ‘Get what is missing’.
Image: Creative Commons
*In this 4 part series I will be looking at Four approaches to Spiritual Transformation from Connecting by Dr. Larry Crabb and Revolution Within by Dwight Edwards.
