What Drives Your Life?

Perfectionism is a destructive driver in life and it must be rejected as a part of any endeavor to align with God's plan for my life. Someone might ask, is not a rejection of perfectionism a rejection of a key component of being true to God's will? After all, it was Jesus himself who said, Be perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect.

The key to fulfilling that verse is to embrace God's role in it. Only God can supply what is needed for me to be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Perfectionism is rooted in a wrong-headed paradigm wherein I must try to supply, out of my own lack, what is lacking in order to attain god-like perfection. How can I supply what I lack? It is foolish to try. It's like trying to pay bills out of an empty checking account. That is a paralyzing and frustrating plan.

We need a correct understanding of what the Bible means when it uses the word "perfect." Good synonyms would be clean and complete. So Jesus means that, 'I want you to invite God to clean you from the inside out so he can move in and complete your personhood, guiding you to flesh-out the image of God in you.'

Perfectionisn has deep roots at the very beginning of the human story. Eve, and subsequently, Adam were duped into perfectionism. In the Garden, God supplied their every need. They lacked nothing.

Enter Satan the Liar. He was able to convince Eve that her paradigm was off. A few doubt- inducing questions would do the trick. Could God really be trusted for everything? Don't you want to know? You will not die from disobeying God. You will become like him. Don't you want to be like God? Adam and Eve became convinced that they could indeed discover new knowledge from which God had been protecting them. They acted out of a wrong-headed paradigm that their action would meet a need that God had left unmet by not properly lining up the supply of knowledge with their demand for it. There was a fundamental shift in their outlook. It seemed small and sincerely motivated. But they soon discovered the lie. Too late. They had breached their trust with God.

Perfectionism is a self-imposed prison that incapacitates your ability to enjoy God's fellowship, be true to yourself and hear your vocation in life.

We don't "get over" perfectionism. We are rescued from it, because we simply don't have the inner resources to resist its insidious pull. The rescue comes in the person of Jesus who gives us a way back to a relationship with God characterized by total trust that everything we need, he will lavishly provide. Isn't it fitting that the antedote to a selfish partaking of forbidden fruit that imprisons the human soul is the lavish self-offering of God's Son--received in the Eucahrist.

St. Paul wrote to the Galatians: Answer this question: Does the God who lavishly provides you with his own presence, his Holy Spirit, working things in your lives you could never do for yourselves, does he do these things because of your strenuous moral striving or because you trust him to do them in you? (The Message, 392).

Christ redeemed us from self-defeating (perfectionism). We are all able to receive God's life, his Spirit, in us and with us by believing. (The Message, 393)

Perfectionism

I tend to be a perfectionist, which is not necessarily a good thing. I'm coming to understand perfectionism as a paralyzing disorder. It's key symptom is theoretical over-analysis. Important things never get done because the analysis phase is unending. Not sure why I have this disorder, but I have to treat it with reality, truth and action.

1. It takes as much effort to do something as to do nothing. When the rich young ruler came to Jesus to learn what was expected of him, Jesus called him to radical action. "Sell what you own and follow me." The young man rejected the call. His expended effort was different in outcome, but not really different in amount. Selling is not harder than keeping.
2. God is guiding me. He is beyond my analytical capabilities, so simple trust is called for. When we trust in him, we're free to say whatever needs to be said, bold to go wherever we need to go. (Ephesians 3:12, The Message)
3. If I act on what I believe God wants me to do, I cannot make a mistake. Abraham misunderstood God when he set out to sacrifice Isaac. God prevented the mistake of human sacrifice, but rewarded Abraham's faith nonetheless.
4. Improvement, not perfectionism, is the building block of accomplishment. To be perfect, in the Christian sense, means that nothing is lacking, because God is present. Perfectionism, on the other hand, is the attempt to supply what only God can. We improve our Christian effectiveness by relying on God more and on ourselves less. God can do anything, you know - far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us. (Ephesians 3:20, The Message)
   

Not my job to find and anoint the true church

Does the Lord really expect all believers to correctly choose the ecclesial community that is the one and only true one? For a long time I have felt that burden, until it paralyzed me spiritually and robbed me of joy and hope.

There is much to love about Orthodoxy: the worship is Christo-centric and there is valid claim of historical precedence and faithfulness to the Gospel. I can be at home in an Orthodox community.

There is no shortage of vibrant local Roman Catholic parishes, in the sense that the worship is vibrant and social justice is on the agenda. Catholic parishes don't get community, by my observation. Holy Family in Inverness is the exception.

Protestant churches are all over the map theologically and very few get the Biblical teaching about the Eucharist right. You would think it would be very easy to believe Jesus' own words. Instead every effort is made not to appear to be catholic. But the evangelical churches do seem to have a handle on community. When I attend an evangelical church, I often have the unmistakable sense that "these people care about me."

It is clear to me that every one of these Churches is full of people who love the Lord and seek to please him.

Last Sunday, at Holy Family Catholic there was an altar call after the service. We were invited to place our hands on the altar and leave our spiritual burdens and take the spiritual blessings we needed. I participated in this exercise and came away with a strong sense that it is not my burden to anoint the true church.

For me the issue has to be about my being open to community. Needing other people and letting them need me. No matter what faith community I invest myself in, I will be in the unique position of being called to help them build bridges to others in the Christian family who may be at different places on the theological spectrum.

Community

Community is a deeply satisfying experience of belonging. Anyone can experience it because community meets the human need to be accepted in the context of knowing and being known. While the tasks of obtaining food, safety and shelter often mask the need for community, one's deeply satisfying experience of belonging becomes the cornerstone of economic and emotional prosperity. Conversely, sustained avoidance of community is a reliable predictor for economic and emotional  disaster.

There was a definite process by which one made people into friends, and it involved talking to them and listening to them for hours at a time.
Rebecca West (1892 - 1983)

Democratic Convention's Only Pro-Life Speaker Backs Destructive Research

Democratic Convention's Only Pro-Life Speaker Backs Destructive Research

A favorite formula that allows politicians to state a value and take a swipe at the opposition in the same sentence might read: "We can (insert proposition here) without (insert antithesis here)."

For example: We can give health insurance to every American without overburdening the middle class with increasing taxes. Or, We can defend freedom without sacrificing one American life.

Little wonder that politicians are considered to lack basic honesty.

Ron Reagan at the DNC suggested that embryonic stem-cell research can be conducted without killing one fetus. Of course he understands the linguistic loophole he created. For he also must know that the research cannot be done without killing embryos. He is certain that innocent babies labeled embryo have no intrinsic value, a presumption that makes his position defensible in his own view. Such embryos do, in his view, have a only mechanistic value. Reagan took a swipe at the Pope, the Catholic Church and other pro-life Christians when he moralistically scolded those who oppose the sacrifice of human embryos as building their theology to stand in the way of huge medical advances.

What a shame that someone with the Reagan name is confusing moralism, the judging of values, with the moral virtue of standing in defense of defenseless babies.

Purpose Driven Life--Its Not About Me

Purpose Driven Life
Inspite of all the advertising around me, how can I remind myself that life is really about living for God, not myself?

This question is ancient. One problem we face today is that old questions tend to be overshadowed by new information of questionalble value. For example, a TV series called "It's Good to Be " never even wonders aloud if celebrity is inherently good, or not. It also does not touch on the downside of cecelebrity. That is saved for another program...E! Hollywood True Story.

People who want to live for God are labled fanatic, or irrelevent, by a culture that lacks a divine perspective. Even the religions and philosopies publically embraced by celebrities ultimately are only about how the philosophy "makes me a better person" or makes me feel better.

I've always wanted to live for God, though I readily admit my abysmal failure at the vocation. Why? Because my efforts have been about making myself feel right or justified in my well informed conclusions rather than being about knowing acting in concert with the persons of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The other evening a hymn from my childhood was rattling around in my head.

When we walk with the Lord, In the light of His Word/ What a glory he sheds on our way. While we do his good will/ He abides with us still/ And with all who will trust and obey.

How uttlerly orthodox this verse is. I can't think of a saint of the church who could not sing it with complete abandon. In fact, it is perhaps the best prescription for joining their holy ranks!

What can I do be continously reminded that my life is not about me, but about the Giver of Life and his purpose for putting me on this planet?
1. Be skeptical about cultural cues. TV does not add value to bankrupt ideas.
2. Be open to divine promptings and nudges. And act on them.
3. Remember that although history provides clues as to the ways and places of God's activity, he may ask you to do his work in new ways. His mercies never end. They are new every morning.