The Perfect Battle

Think for a second about your all-time favorite fight scene. Is this your idea of the perfect battle? Maybe it's from a war movie, maybe it's an action film, perhaps it's something historical, or even fantasy. Whatever scene you pictured, now imagine yourself in the scene. I don't know about you, but when I put myself in the battle scene scenario, my first thought is "Ouch," because I probably wouldn't make it very long...

From the movie Narnia: Prince Caspian

But let's take a look at another fight that occurs almost every day in almost every way amongst almost everyone. It is SO hard to try fighting what I like to call the "Perfect Battle." This is the battle against being perfect. I would absolutely love it if everyone around me could see me as a perfect person, but (obviously) that's impossible because I'm not "perfect" and sometimes that can be a hard thing to cope with.

How can I be happy with myself if I can't see myself as perfect? I have to redefine my standards. In fact, I have to completely change them so that this human definition of "perfect" is out of the equation-- FOR GOOD.
Many people (debatably most people) hold themselves to a standard of "perfect" without even noticing. If you are constantly unhappy with yourself, even when you are trying to live life to the best of your ability, then I'd say it's probably because you're striving for the unreachable mark of perfection. There are MANY reasons why perfection won't work, so let's take a look at a few.

 Courtesy of Todaymade.com

1. Jesus was/is the only perfect person- therefore, perfection is unacheivable.

2. We don't actually know what perfection looks like- therefore, perfection is unacheivable.

Did you catch that? Perfection is unacheivable. Many years ago, a man named Jesus, the son of God, lived on Earth and being fully man and fully God, He was the only person to ever live a perfect life. Because we are all humans and therefore all sinners, we will never be perfect.

Not only that, but even with the example of Jesus, we still don't know exactly what perfect means... did perfect mean that he automatically knew right from wrong all the time? Did perfect mean that he had to develop his character or that it just came naturally? You could spend hours trying to answer questions such as these and still not know the exact truth.

Especially when we throw in our personal opinions, there is not a single specific definition of perfect. When it comes to beauty, I might think that the most beautiful person on earth would have brown hair and green eyes and red freckles. Whereas you might believe that red freckles and brown hair are an unattractive quality. I can't even think of the most beautiful person on Earth. I can think of multiple people that might be considered "the most beautiful people on Earth" (aesthetically), but neither is more beautiful than the other, they're simply different from each other-- beautiful in different ways. The same concept goes for personality types.

During a recent time in which I was fighting "The Perfect Battle", I was able to write a poem that brought me back to the truth about how life is meant to be lived. Here it is:

Be Ugly.

Be broken.

Be loved, be free.

Remember that the chains of this world do not bind me.

Be open- palms out for what the Lord has in store.

Rest in the joy of His grace and remember what you live for.

No rules, no laws, no restrictions, or reservations--

Take God out of your "perfect" box, and live in the true meaning of Salvation.

The most amazing part of all this is that if you're a part of the kingdom of Christ, He sees you as perfect even with those imperfections.

The most "perfect" version of you is the one who has joy, knowing that "perfection" doesn't exist and isn't an option.
The most "perfect" version of you is the one who embraces the freckles that you may or may not see as perfect and accepts the fact that you might be able to accomplish everything today, or you might not.


Live, Learn, Love, Leave a Legacy,  
                   & Stay Creative,                                      

        Emma