Grace > Perfection
this photo has nothing to do with my post, but I snapped it on a snowshoe hike this winter and wanted to share it
If you've been a reader of my blog for any length of time you know that I'm always up to my ears with studying for school. It's a never-ending (lame) part of this journey I'm on. So with all this school I've accomplished thus far you'd think that I would have learned a whole lot of things about life, which I have, but they're all book type of things like how to derive a mathematical expression for the velocity of an enzyme's catalysis mechanism based on the initial concentration and product/time data. Did I lose you? Sadly, I almost lost myself. But lucky for you, and myself, today's post isn't about things I learned in school, but about something I've learned that school won't teach me. Like the importance of holding myself to a standard of grace rather than perfection.
It's a constant and high-maintenance lesson that I will probably never fully grasp, but I have certainly been trying. It's one of those things that school seems to go against, because perfection is rewarded with an 'A' and by golly I need those A's to get into medical school because they only let smart people in and smart is something I am not. And grace doesn't get you A's so perfection is what I strive for even though I usually buckle under the pressure of perfection. But grace, grace is sweet, calm and peaceful. It forgives if you turn in an assignment with a typo or miss a few points on an 'easy' exam question because you spaced the concepts under pressure. It forgives if you get angry with someone instead of approaching them with love, if you just don't have enough time to cook dinner so opt for a can of soup instead. If you just can't possibly say yes to one more favor because you are so tired that you're seeing double and if you miss your best friend's birthday because you have more things going on in your mind than you have capacity to handle.
It allows you to forgive when the world says you shouldn't, to love those others despise, to give when you have nothing left to give, to love when it's beyond our ability, to hope when it seems that there's nothing left to hope for and to trust when nothing makes sense.
I've began to understand that grace is so much greater than perfection. It's the calm in a storm and the thing I can only hope others will measure me against. To hold myself to a standard of perfection is setting myself up to be let down, but to hold myself to a standard of grace is setting myself up to allow room for the perfect One to work in the places I cannot. Grace is the perfect place to be and the only thing I'm striving to be perfect at.
If you've been a reader of my blog for any length of time you know that I'm always up to my ears with studying for school. It's a never-ending (lame) part of this journey I'm on. So with all this school I've accomplished thus far you'd think that I would have learned a whole lot of things about life, which I have, but they're all book type of things like how to derive a mathematical expression for the velocity of an enzyme's catalysis mechanism based on the initial concentration and product/time data. Did I lose you? Sadly, I almost lost myself. But lucky for you, and myself, today's post isn't about things I learned in school, but about something I've learned that school won't teach me. Like the importance of holding myself to a standard of grace rather than perfection.
It's a constant and high-maintenance lesson that I will probably never fully grasp, but I have certainly been trying. It's one of those things that school seems to go against, because perfection is rewarded with an 'A' and by golly I need those A's to get into medical school because they only let smart people in and smart is something I am not. And grace doesn't get you A's so perfection is what I strive for even though I usually buckle under the pressure of perfection. But grace, grace is sweet, calm and peaceful. It forgives if you turn in an assignment with a typo or miss a few points on an 'easy' exam question because you spaced the concepts under pressure. It forgives if you get angry with someone instead of approaching them with love, if you just don't have enough time to cook dinner so opt for a can of soup instead. If you just can't possibly say yes to one more favor because you are so tired that you're seeing double and if you miss your best friend's birthday because you have more things going on in your mind than you have capacity to handle.
It allows you to forgive when the world says you shouldn't, to love those others despise, to give when you have nothing left to give, to love when it's beyond our ability, to hope when it seems that there's nothing left to hope for and to trust when nothing makes sense.
I've began to understand that grace is so much greater than perfection. It's the calm in a storm and the thing I can only hope others will measure me against. To hold myself to a standard of perfection is setting myself up to be let down, but to hold myself to a standard of grace is setting myself up to allow room for the perfect One to work in the places I cannot. Grace is the perfect place to be and the only thing I'm striving to be perfect at.
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