WE ARE ALL INADEQUATE

No one is perfect. Only God is. We know that. It’s not rocket science or even deep theology. It is not even skin deep. We know from everyday experience that we are imperfect people living in an imperfect world. We make mistakes every day, deliberate ones and accidental ones. We are affected by our mistakes and are affected by those of others. There is no escape.

There never will be in this life in this world. Jesus came to bring in the kingdom of God in this life, not just in the life to come. But for that kingdom to become a reality, perfection would have to come into existence. And, again, that is not going to happen, at least not in the lifetime of any one of us currently living, nor, I think, in the lifetime of anyone in the very distant future.

What that means is that we have to honestly not only admit our inadequacies but seriously confront them on a very personal level and not shrug our shoulders and cut ourselves a break because no one is perfect. Everyone is inadequate. Just because everyone is does not mean it’s okay. Just because everyone does something that does not mean what is being done is all right and we can join in.

We tried that excuse on our parents as teenagers and it did not work back then and it does not work now. It never does. But we still try to excuse ourselves of our inadequacies, whatever they are, because, well, and again, everyone is inadequate. While that may seem like a good excuse, it still does not excuse us.

When we personally and honestly confront our imperfections, we need not take ourselves to the proverbial woodshed because we would never leave there. While they may not be many, there are still enough of them to keep us busy trying to do what we can to become a better person, selfish less and selfless more. That does not happen unless we are seriously intentional about it.

I think that is what Jesus’ ministry was all about. He did not come among us to remind us that we were not perfect. We knew that. He came to remind us that we could do something about it. And if and when we did, we would make our lives and those around us better. And he showed us how. Yes, in all honesty, it cost him his life because too many people thought it easier to shut him up than change the way they were living.

Killing the messenger doesn’t kill the message. It is simply a reminder about how important that message is. We have heard the message. We know we are not perfect. We know we will always be inadequate. But we also know that being inadequate does not excuse us from trying to be perfect even though we will always come up short.

God does not ask that we be perfect. What God does ask of us is that we do our best each day to be the best person we can be. And whenever we fail, because we will, to acknowledge our failure, try to rectify our mistake, whether deliberate or accidental, and try not to do it again. That’s all God asks of us and all we can ask of ourselves.