Earlier this year I delivered a message called Perfect Imperfection. While I was spending time with the Lord, contemplating how we fall short of His perfection, the words of ‘All of Me’ by John Legend came to mind and I felt like the Lord was singing that to mankind, to me:
‘Cause all of me
Loves all of you
Love your curves and all your edges
All your perfect imperfections
Give your all to me
I’ll give my all to you
It was then that I had the revelation that God did NOT make us to be perfect. In fact, He perfectly made us imperfect! We were never created to exist apart from God. We were designed to be incomplete without Him, finding our perfection in Him alone. Humans are weak, incomplete and fall short of anything perfect or holy. At this realisation, it is God’s desire for us to run to Him, to be found in Him, that we might find the completion and perfection that we all strive for in our lives.
God does not reject us in our imperfections. He knows that we truly cannot be perfect apart from Him. He sees our need and knowing that He Himself is the answer to our created need, He LONGS for us to draw near to Him in our imperfection that we might find rest and perfection in our completion in Him. So when God sees our imperfections, I actually think He is drawn to us, rather than repelled as we often are deceived into thinking – like two magnets drawn together or two pieces of a puzzle that were made to fit together. After all, did Jesus not come to the earth, drawn to man in his weakness and sin. God sent His Son that by His completion, we have the opportunity to partake of His holiness (His wholeness).
Recently again, I have been contemplating weakness. I don’t have to look far to see it. It is threaded through me and my day-to-day journey. It is evident in my close neighbour and in mankind across the sea. And, though it is everywhere to be seen, how do we see it?
Mostly, for us humans, weakness (“perfection failure”) is something to fear above all else, and understandably with good reason since the weakness and failures of man have caused great pain and loss in our world. And yet 2 Corinthians 12:9, says, “My power is made perfect in weakness.”
Just after our fourth child was born with Down’s Syndrome, I listened to an inspiring speech delivered to the Australian parliament by Gianna Jessen, a woman who survived abortion and who now as a result has cerable pausy. She had these insightful words to say, “… there are things that you will only be able to learn by the weakest among us. And when you snuff them out, you are the one who loses…” Tim Harris, a unique restaranteer who has Down Syndrone said this to the world in a documentary on his life, “We are special. We are a gift to the world”. Nick Vujicic, popular motivational speaker, has inspired and given hope to thousands when they see His courage and fortitude in overcoming his seemingly huge disability of having no limbs. What sort of world would we live in if there was no weakness? We would never see amazing virtues like compassion and courage which enrich our lives.
This is an interesting thought. If we see weakness outside of God, it certainly is something to fear. But if you add God to the equation – shall we call it redeemed weakness – then it can be awe inspiring. In the seeming dark, hopelessness of weakness (our failure to attain perfection), there are treasures hiding. They are treasures of courage, triumph, compassion, kindness, fortitude, humility. They are gifts to us and how much poorer would our world be without them.
In a recent family devotion, my fifteen year old son expressed how much poorer in life we would be if we didn’t face challenges because one would miss out on the joy and sense of satisfaction after having conquered and overcome. It reminded me of a personal reflection of mine earlier that week. I had been so anxious (in fear) about various circumstances in my children’s lives where they were coming face to face either with their own weakness, mine (oh, horror of horrors) or others. Instead of putting my faith in God’s power in our weakness, I was close to dispair, desperately afraid they would experience pain. Yet, God is not afraid of our weakness, because He is the ANSWER and He will give us treasures in this darkness. So I put my hope in the Lord, that actually this is His opportunity to make them rich!
I recently watched the movie, The Giver, about a world where the people tried to eliminate all weakness, imperfection, pain and fear. It left them living a uncreative, bland, black and white life. The bible says that He came that we might have life, and life to the FULL! He is SO great and SO good that He can turn our greatest weaknesses and failures to good if we turn them over to Him.
No, we don’t have to be afraid of our short-comings if, in that moment, we tap into the abundant provision in God Himself and we find His strength made perfect in our weakness. Let us run to Him when we find we fall short in life, knowing that He is Abundant Provision in our imperfection.
