Interlude: Musings on Perfection with TED

Jon Bowers' TED talk, "We should aim for perfection-and stop fearing failure," makes some compelling claims. Perfection is the only acceptable goal for any activity with an impact--which, arguably, is anything worth spending your time on.  His examples--finance, medicine, the automotive industry--speak to us, as the impact of mistakes in those domains has immediate relevancy to most of us.  Perfection seems a very reasonable goal for the cars we drive, the care of our money, the tending of our bodies and health.  But when we consider our own performance at work--attendance at meetings, attentiveness to details and checklists, responsiveness to customers or supervisors, compliance with rules, regulations and expectations--our standards sag a bit, weighed down by both a sense of futility and a sense of irrelevance.

"I can't be on top of my game every day!", "all of this emphasis on perfection is stressful and makes me even less productive!", "it's not fair to expect that level of performance", "it's unrealistic to imagine anyone can live up to those expectations; that's how you give someone a heart attack--or at least a 'complex'!"  So goes the internal refrain, and a very rational refrain it is:  who can be perfect all of the time?  This emphasis on perfection is also counter to themes in self-help and post-modern psychology, which emphasizes individual truths, personal validation, and an acceptance of idiosyncrasies, failures and foibles. We don't dare tell our children, our employees or ourselves that they've achieved sub-perfection; the mantra seems to be "good enough is good enough", lest we wound someone's ego, create a neurosis or diminish team spirit.  I've said similar things myself, particularly in the face of shrinking resources, constant demands on time and energy, and a relentless requirement to do more with less.  Something has to go, and the expectation of perfection has certainly spent it's time on the chopping block.

Layered on top of this secular acceptance of the less-than-perfect is a religious acceptance of the same.  Statements like "God loves you just the way you are" speak to a very warm-and-fuzzy image of our loving God, one who just wants everyone to play nice and do the best they can; a pseudoGod who is far to humanized in his acceptance of failure.  This "grandpa God" is at least in part a backlash against the "sinners in the hands of an angry God"-style God that our Puritan ancestors bequeathed to us.  But are either of these extremes a correct image of God and a correct understanding of His expectations for His people?  Does God expect us to be perfect or is He tolerant and forgiving of our human weaknesses?

In Leviticus 19: 2, God gives specific instructions and precedes it with the statement "Be holy, because I the Lord your God am holy."  Deuteronomy 32:4 states that God is a Rock,"his ways are perfect and...just...[a]faithful God who does no wrong....". Matthew 5: 48 says quite clearly "Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect."   Even read in context, the whole of Matthew chapter 5 is quite prescriptive:  those who make peace, are meek and self-sacrificing are blessed by God; be salt and light to the world; follow the commands of God's holy law, don't murder, don't commit adultery, don't take vengeance.   There's no "do the best you can" in these chapters.  As far back as Eden there has been an expectation of holiness and perfection:  it was "only" a single bite of fruit that separated all of creation from the Creator; it was "just" a little "harmless" curiosity, a "completely understandable" yearning for autonomy, a desire for wisdom (and isn't that a good thing?).  The first act of sin and the consequences speak clearly of the imperative of perfect obedience and perfect love that God expects.

How do we reconcile these concepts?  We know in our hearts and with our rational minds that perfection is a good thing--no one wants to put their child in a car-seat manufactured by someone with "less-than-perfect" as a goal; no one wants their parent operated on by a surgeon with "good-enough" as an acceptable standard.  But simultaneous to that acknowledgement, our minds shriek and struggle against the impossibility of perfection:  "Yes, but! Yes, but!" we cry, looking for the words and the rational argument for perfection in everyone else but leniency for us. This spiritual cognitive dissonance is described by Paul as a groaning for eternity (2 Cor 5: 1-5), a longing for perfection and release from sin, pain and struggle.  

Martin Luther said to "sin boldly": 

 "Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong (sin boldly), but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world. We will commit sins while we are here, for this life is not a place where justice resides. We, however, says Peter (2. Peter 3:13) are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth where justice will reign". 

We must recognize fully that we are sinners and will screw up, but must simultaneously rely fully on the grace and mercy of God in Christ.  If we attempt perfection out of fear and anxiety, we will be paralyzed, imprisoned by that impossibility; or we will become tyrants, panic-stricken, raging monsters.  If we give up on perfection as a noble goal, if we stop striving for it, we will settle somewhere into the spectrum between full debauchery and trite ineffectiveness.  The only way to reconcile these simultaneous truths is the perfect fulcrum of Jesus Christ.  

How did God achieve the demand for perfection, for absolute holiness, which is an intrinsic component of His character; while extending mercy and compassion to His fallen but dearly loved Creation?   Romans 3: 21-26 states the case and the solution clearly:  God's righteousness is the only righteousness, the only way we can be declared perfect; God has given His righteousness to us in Christ Jesus by faith.  Verse 26 says "He did it to demonstrate His justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus."  And why does God get to "have His cake and eat it too", to demand absolute perfection yet extend mercy to sinners?  Because Jesus Christ became the atoning sacrifice for sin:  His blood, shed on the cross, was sufficient to pay for the totality of human sin--to meet God's demand for justice, the requirement of His perfect character.

What does this mean for us?  How does this let me as a Christian leader--set free from my sin by the grace of God in Christ--achieve the challenge Jon Bowers issues, to aim for perfection and not be afraid of failure?   Jesus Christ dissolves the cognitive dissonance--the "Yes, but!" cry--by giving us an "Yes, and, but" answer.  Yes, perfection is the only noble goal to strive for; perfection is the only acceptable standard; and Yes, I will regularly fail and the people I lead will regularly fail to achieve perfection; but Yes, I can pick myself up and come to the throne of grace knowing that I will receive grace to help me in my time of need.  Because all things are now Yes in Christ Jesus.

1) Consider the organization in which you lead or serve.   What are the areas where perfection is demanded, where there is no compromise?  What are the outcomes, what is the risk, when the goal of perfection is missed?

2) What are the consequences for failure in your organization?  How do you as a leader respond?  Consider the words of Romans 3:26.  How can you emulate your Heavenly Father and be both just and the one who justifies (declares righteous) toward those who fail?  In other words, how can you bring both justice (appropriate consequences, fairness) and compassion to your workplace, particularly as a leader?

3) Can you envision a situation where you might bear unfair consequences from your superiors for upholding a merciful and just response--eg, where someone might demand an unreasonable full accounting for failure, an unfair "scape-goating" that you will need to resist, possibly to personal detriment?  How can you fortify yourself spiritually and emotionally for that eventuality?

4) Does this discussion--that of "sinning boldly", of recognizing the human incapacity for perfection side by side with the grace of God--give you a different perspective on your personal failures?  Can this perspective give you greater humility, greater ability to publicly acknowledge failure, to ask for forgiveness and to develop a plan to make amends?  Have you seen this kind of humility in leaders; if so, what was the response of followers?

5) Have you made reflection and repentance part of your daily or weekly (or hourly!) routine as a leader?   Who is in your personal or professional life helps hold you accountable?  Who can you confide fears and failures to?  Are there spiritual practices--prayer, reading and meditation on scripture, church attendance, small group bible studies--that would shore up your personal ability to strive for perfection while dealing daily with failure?