The Search for Perfection

I I remember the first time I saw "Zorro". Not the old TV version, but the movie. The one with Antonio Banderas, Anthony Hopkins, and Catherine Zeta-Jones. I remember talking with my friends about the movie. It was a good action flick, and it had a good plot, but that's not what everyone talked about. Guys or girls -- all they could talk about was this newcomer, Catherine Zeta-Jones "did you see her skin" "she had perfect hair" and on and on. People were fascinated by how perfect she was. One person said, "I kept looking in every scene to see if there was one flaw in her skin, one hair out of place, but I never found any." I know this sounds like girl talk, but it wasn't- it was what everybody was saying- guys and girls.

Perfection is something that has incredible fascination to us all.

I remember in high school there was a guy in our class, Harry Schaeffer. He got a perfect 1600 on his SAT scores. Now I remember a lot of things about Harry. We had some great times together. We all went out to his lake house after prom our senior year. But what I remember most is that Harry got a perfect 1600. How did he do that? How is it possible?

The search for perfection is something that I believe God has placed in the heart of man. Whether it's a matter of finding the perfect love, the perfect job, the perfect figure, the perfect house in the perfect neighborhood- it's something that haunts many people and drives many people. Now I know some are more perfectionistic than others, but that's not exactly what I'm talking about.

I suppose all of us have a little bit of a perfectionism in us. No matter how well we do something we always feel we could have done better . We don't usually focus on how well we did, we think about how we fell short. Some of you are reading this and thinking, "you poor perfectionist." If you can't relate to this, then stop reading.

How much of the time do we genuinely praise and thank God for the way things turn out? And how much of the time do we grumble and complain about how we wish things had gone? How many parents are trying to raise the perfect kids? "I wish they would do better at school." "I wish they could make the team- get into a better college- find the perfect mate." If we're not striving for perfection in our own life then we're certainly hoping that our children can find it. If you don't believe me, just go to a youth ballgame and listen to what is said in the stands!

A wise man often talks about the "real world" as though it's something that most people never really grasp. I heard Donald Rumsfeld talking on TV the other day about our relationship with certain nations and how much corruption there is in those nations. The commentator was asking him how we can make so many deals with them. He said there is no perfect government and there's no perfect nation and we do not live in a perfect world. I thought that was a pretty good answer and showed a lot of wisdom.

Whether it's in the family or among the nations, the search for perfection can be harmful. We miss out on the reality of what is in preference for the fantasy of what might be. How many marriages or families have been crippled or destroyed by the nagging doubts and pain that comes from incomplete acceptance of one another. Is your mate confident and safe in the knowledge of your unconditional love, or are they plagued by fear of rejection? Are your children under the "yoke of slavery" that comes from the "performance" trap. Are they addicted to pleasing Mommy and Daddy, even when they can never be pleased.

Now I believe God has indeed placed the search for perfection in our hearts. But he placed it there for one reason only. Augustine once said, "Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee, oh God." We keep looking on the horizontal for that which can only be found in the verticle. Each of us has this deep desire for perfection, but we are intended to discover we can't find it in this life. We are supposed to get disenchanted by the search for perfection. We are intended to get frustrated and to look beyond, to look to the spiritual dimension of life. We do untold harm to ourselves and others when we look for perfection in ourselves or in them. I believe the search for perfection in this life is ultimately simply "worldliness".

There's only one thing in this universe that's truly perfect and that is God himself. And only one thing that satisfies our craving for perfection, a relationship with Christ.

Mt 6:33 Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Hebrews 5:

9 And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him,

Colossians 1:

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.

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