Perfectly Imperfect!

James 3:2:
 "All of us often make mistakes"

Yesterday morning has been a time of yet more reflection which seems to be happening a lot of late. When I look back on previous blog posts I see quite a few errors where I have to go back and amend these posts which does appear to be happening frequently. Even really old blog posts where there is a lot of poetry – I see imperfections in near enough everything I have written whereby my heart does sink where immediately thoughts come into my mind such as – “why did I not pick up on this straightaway.” The thoughts at times are never ending where guilt also comes into play.

Now we live in an imperfect world where there is nothing we can do about this whatsoever. Even in work or anything where professionalism needs to come into play there are I have no doubt going to be the old flaws if you will that do creep in and this is another point I wish to address.

No matter how hard we try we are imperfect; we are going to continue to have flaws; to make mistakes throughout our lives – this is inevitable. We need to remember that we are a “work in progress” and we will continue to be this way until we are called home to be with our Precious Saviour Jesus (and this is for those of us who have accepted Jesus as our Saviour whereby we have handed our lives over to Him one hundred fold). We were born imperfect human beings and no matter how in our lives we desire to be and to do everything perfectly – we will fail!

You know that with all of our imperfections where we recognise just how flawed of a human being we are – we can still spend our whole lives trying to perfect ourselves; we can try to be perfect our walk with Jesus; we can try to perfect our lives to such an extent whereby if not careful we can lose sight of our walk with the ONLY one who is absolutely perfect and without any flaws of any kind. We can lose sight of spending time with Him and if not careful because we are trying to be the “perfect person” to others to the point where we are striving in works rather than concentrating on building our relationship with Jesus. We have to remember that no matter how hard we try that we are going to fail because it is impossible to be that “perfect person” whilst on this earth and nothing will change that. We can pretend to be someone whom we are not too henc we can give fake impressions.

Actually on this note is an example I am going to give and I could give several examples here but in the 1990s there was this television programme which was hugely popular called “keeping up appearances” which was a British sitcom. The central character is an eccentric and snobbish middle class  social climber, Hyacinth Bucket, who insists that her surname is pronounced “Bouquet”.

The sitcom follows Hyacinth in her attempts to prove her social superiority, and to gain standing with those she considers upper class. Her attempts are constantly hampered by her lower class extended family, whom she is desperate to hide. Much of the humour comes from the conflict between Hyacinth’s vision of herself and the reality of her underclass background. In each episode, she lands in a farcical situation as she battles to protect her social credibility.

So, basically Hyacinth Bucket was making out to be someone she was not. This brings me to another valid point in this blog post which is not only are we giving a false impression to those around us but we are also deceiving and lying which is actual fact. To put on airs and graces pretending to be someone you are not. This also brings me to another point whereby we are living a “double life” whereby by doing the above, you can be seen as living beyond your means by “keeping up appearances”. Can you see how dangerous this is!!

In a lot of cases (but not all) there is often “mental illness” attached to this syndrome. I did say not in all cases before any reader throws a hissy fit here. I do bring in “mental illness” because this is something that often happens and this can also be down to your upbringing; and/or hurt. There are so many factors involved here which can be as I said above quite dangerous unless a person is so “mentally unstable” that they have no clue of their behaviour and this can and sadly does happen. This can be down to a chemical imbalance in our brain or other factors which can come down from our parents or grand-parents – but my point here being, that not always can “mental health” issues be fixed plus as stated can be so severe that unless Jesus does an intense work in a persons life to heal them – again, this quite possibly will not take place until we are called home.

This is where also people are known to be living “in cloud cuckoo land” for want of a better expression. Also to add wood to the fire – certain television programmes can come into play here and sadly even social media gives out huge red flags too! I am going to give yet a different example here of when I was around five years old – one afternoon I was watching an old black and white movie where this particular actress was incredibly beautiful (from a young child’s perspective), I so wanted to be like this actress where I loved her hair style (I have no doubt many of you can see where I am going with this) but anyhow I found a pair of scissors and decided to attempt in my child eyes to replicate her hairstyle so I did cut a chunk from my hair . My mother did not say anything to me but when my dad came home, he came up to me where I was lying on the sofa and boy did I get a hiding – needless to say, I never attempted to do that again!!

You know we can pretend to be someone we are not; we can pretend to be someone who is absolutely perfect and/or “show off” in other words the “look at me” syndrome but in reality our lives are a blatant lie. Now, we can do the above all we like however, we need to remember that there is one person who we can not hold up this pretence and that is to God – why? because as stated in His Word, He knows every single minute detail about us. He knows our thoughts; He knows the words we are going to speak out and He also knows our actions – there is not one single thing about our lives that He misses and let me tell you He does not miss a trick!!

The statement I have made above should be enough to cause us to stop and think twice before doing anything that is not of God – right! but also in reality we are perfectly imperfect BUT and this is a huge BUT. If we have His Holy Spirit inside of us – then His Holy Spirit gives us warning of any behavioural patterns that are not of God which also means we have choices to make. We can ignore His Holy Spirit and carry on in our OWN sweet way OR we can be obedient and turn from our wicked ways of sin and move forward in the blessings of God. I also realise I am bringing up “the word choice again but so much of our behaviour is down to choices we make – end of!!

We can try to be the perfect wife; the perfect mother; the perfect friend; the perfect boss or whatever real life situation comes into our lives and this also includes trying to be the perfect “Believer in Jesus Christ” but this is not going to happen and because there is the danger of striving as I said earlier and where a “works based faith” comes into play where there is a danger of falling away from our walk with Jesus because of our works, this will end up in absolute guilt and chaos. This is where the only way we can try and perfect our lives is to make sure our heart is right with God and allow Him and Him alone to change us from the inside out. No amount of what we try and do on the outside is going to work at all and is neon impossible – so please I urge all of us to make sure that our walk is to the point that we allow His Holy Spirit to work in us and to allow His Holy Spirit to do the leading from our hearts.

As I mentioned in the paragraph above, we can not strive in our walk with Jesus. Therefore we must allow His Holy Spirit to take the reigns and it is that simple. Striving does not lead anywhere except to failure and that is not going to help either and this is for both you and me – so please, I urge both of us to make sure that we don’t rely on a “works based faith” alone because it is by faith that we walk an obedient life where it is by grace through faith that we continue on to the amazing life that Jesus has for us. Allow Him to take the reigns and not “self” because “self” will fail – believe you me, this will fail every single time.

Proverbs 16:18
18 Pride goes before destruction,
And a haughty spirit before a fall.

So on this note, I am drawing this blog post to a close and I encourage all of us on this amazing journey of faith to not strive in our relationship with Jesus and yes I know I keep emphasising this but it is seriously important that we understand just how important this is. There are serious traps here and please let us make sure that we don’t fall into this trap ourselves and as I always say to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus at all times – no matter the cost. Let us also not fall into the trip in making out to others that we are someone better than others around us because this is not true. As I said earlier, let us remember to not fall into the “traps of both “deceit and pride” because God knows everything so we seriously do need to be extremely cautious in who we are attempting to deceive because – one person we cannot deceive is God no matter how hard we try. So, if any of us have falling into the above traps of this world – then we need to give up now – seriously give up now!!

So, no matter what impressions we want to give off to others just accept the simple truth – that we are all

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