Mark Twain once said that the difference between the right word and an almost-right w3ord is like the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.
Where the written word is concerned, I have an espresso-strong preference for lightening.
Even so, I can't exactly call myself a perfectionist--and neither would you if you followed me around for a day! I'm OCD about certain things but far from it about others.
You would notice the drawers on my dresser are never closed evenly, or the bag of bags in the corner of my bedroom. Or you might spy the parade of fingerprint smudges on the refrigerator door, or the smoke detector in the hallway begging for a new battery (or something) with an occasional random annoying beep. And that's just the surface stuff.
I like things just so, but I tolerate a considerable amount of imperfection around and in me every day. The trick is discerning which of these imperfections are rightly tolerable, and which are not. A spritz of dry shampoo on a day I should have washed my hair is tolerable. An unkind word spoken in haste when a gentler one was called for, is not. The bag of bags in the bedroom corner is tolerable--at least it is to me. A growing stack of unconfessed sin in my heart is not. Forgetting a friend's birthday is tolerable. A growing list of unconfessed sin in my heart is not. Ignoring a friend's pressing need is not.
Can I confess right here that I can be "Exhibit A" for Jesus's teaching on ignoring beams to pick at splinters? (Never mind, I just did.) That I can zero in on a distant flaw and entirely miss the one right under my nose? And that I'm even more of an expert at this if the small flaw is yours, and the big one is mine?
I am so thankful for the grace of Jesus that covers all my imperfections, and I pray daily that I would give that same grace to others.
"In a word, what I'm saying is, Grow up. You're kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you." (Matt 5:48 The Message)
