Perfectionism devastates. I believe that perfectionism is one of the silent sins that wages war on people and destroys and yet perfectionism is rarely ever talked about or discussed. Perfectionism attacks every kind of person and there isn't an area in life that can be protected from the desire to appear perfect. From physical appearance, to GPA, to Athletics, to your family, to video games, music, hobbies, children, your home, cooking, career, ect. Every aspect of life is susceptible to the sin of perfectionism.
The scary thing is that often times we don't see perfectionism as harmful or wrong but we even celebrate it in our own lives, we mask it with "i just really want to do my best", "I can be better", "Why do anything half-hearted". We believe that perfectionism is a private issue with how we view ourselves, when really the issue is that we don't want to appear as less than perfect to others. Perfectionism is a sin of wanting to be perceived perfectly by others, not a private issue that is isolated to ourselves.
Perfectionism sucks the joy out of your life and drives you to despair. When I was a sophomore in college I bought the newest FIFA soccer video game...and I was good...really good. I found that I could beat anyone at it and I wanted to be ranked highly in the game worldwide. So I played and played and played to the point where I was in the top 10 in the US and top 50 in the world. I wanted to be number 1 so bad! And what happened was it sucked all my free time away, when I wasn't playing I was thinking about the ground I was losing, I became furious when I lost, and it sucked all of the joy out of the game. One afternoon I simply threw the game away because I hated it and I hated myself from getting trapped by it.
The gospel frees us from perfectionism! The gospel says that we are sinners (Romans 3:23), we all have blemishes, we cannot achieve perfection on our own! Perfectionism says "you can be God" the gospel says "you need a savior!"
The awesome part is that we do have a savior his name is Jesus and he is our perfection. Jesus was perfect (2 Cor 5:21) and because of what he did on the cross we are made perfect in God's eyes! Even more, the Bible says that through our weakness Christ is made strong in us (2 Cor 12:9).
Here is the good news, we don't have to be perfect and when we fail, fall short, and disappoint we can glorify in our savior who is our perfection and is working through us. This allows us to live boldly and take risks because at the end of the day its not about us and how others perceive us, it is about Jesus!
The gospel frees us from perfectionism and allows us to live with boldness and confidence resting in what Jesus has already accomplished on our behalf!
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