Flawless

Perfection. Holiness. Sinlessness.
Whatever you call it, it sounds slightly absurd. No matter who you are though, most reasonable people will say something along the lines of “Well, nobody’s perfect.” To which, we all hardly agree because if that weren’t true, then that would mean there is something extraordinarily wrong with each of us. At least, more so than the “wrongness” we already have to deal with.

I’ve grown up around a diversity of church traditions which have had their own soapboxes and pet verses that they tote around some of which are more absurd then others. Some churches are actually very much focused on perfectionism of the Christian. Many others are focused heavily on the imperfection of the believer and the need for grace. Now, I’m not bringing this up because I want to argue which is a better approach or whatnot, but I do have a severe problem with churches whose overarching weekly encouragement to the congregation is, “Here are all the things you suck at that you need to change... you dirty rotten sinner.” But I digress...

No, I’m more interested in this idea of perfection. Christians torture themselves because they are not perfect (even though they know that “nobody is perfect”). Strange. Any normal human being with a logical mind would see that one course of action isn’t viable and would then be able to accept the reality of that. Not the typical Christian. We know we can’t be perfect and then make ourselves feel like garbage for not being perfect. Now, I know I’m harping and in reality it’s perfectly reasonable for us to feel guilt for faults or else we would be serial killers. However, in many Christian circles, there is definitely an unhealthy level of focus on our imperfections.

I’d be interested to know how many of you have ever written a list of characteristics you want in that special somebody. From what I’ve seen, ladies are particularly prone to this, but written or not, we all typically have these lists in our heads. Expectations. Requirements? The gatekeepers to our heart perhaps? It’s actually an activity that has been encouraged heavily in the church or at least in the circles I’ve run in. Books like “I Kissed Dating Goodbye” or whatnot. They encourage people to take part in a very unhealthy activity, but have disguised it as “wisdom.” What am I talking about?

Perfection. Flawlessness. A bunch of neurotic people roaming around looking for the “one” for them. Am I the only one completely struck by the absurdity of this?

As I was watching Gattaca the other night, the quote “They’ve got you looking so hard at the flaws that that is all you are able to see” came out during the movie and this really struck me. In the movie, Uma’s character, Irene, snags a little bit of hair from a comb in Vincent’s desk drawer and has it brought to an analysis center so that she can find out whether Vincent (Jerome) is a genetically “pure” enough candidate to be with her. When I saw this I was blown away, because this is exactly what we do now, but without genetics.

Instead, we spend all our time with somebody looking and watching carefully for an imperfection. I know not all of us do, because I have many friends that are much more healthy in this area. However, those of us that are a product of the “I Kissed Dating Goodbye” school of thought have fallen prey to a sickening disease which would normally be considered sinful: fault-finding. And just like Jerome/Vincent said in Gattaca, then all we see are the flaws. There’s a healthier way, a more balanced way.