The Paralysis of Perfectionism

The following is Mr. Palmer's address to the middle school student body Tuesday, January 4, 2011

At my home here in Montgomery, I have in the front yard two very large trees.  One is an oak, the other a sweet gum.  Of the two, the sweet gum is by far the most troublesome.  In fact, I have considered having it removed on several occasions.  However, its cooling shade in the summertime, and the exorbitant cost of removal, has prevented me from doing so.

During the Christmas break, I spent the better part of one beautiful, cold morning raking leaves and dried sweet gum balls in preparation for the city’s yard debris pick up scheduled for later in the day.  My lawn is large, and the raking that I had to do, even with a good-sized rake, amounted to an invigorating workout. 

As I was working, I noticed that even though I had a large pile of leaves and things accumulated, there were still leftovers lying all around the area I had raked.  My immediate desire was to go back over the area, and over it and over it, until every last leaf particle, twig, sweet gum ball, or other piece of trash had been removed, thus leaving a pristine carpet of brown, dormant grass.  However, time was ticking away.  I expected the great, orange, City of Montgomery garbage truck to be along any minute, and I needed a large pile curbside for pickup. 

As I made the decision to pile up as many leaves as possible, and leave the residue for another day (or, perhaps, for the lawnmower), it dawned on me that the tendency to perfectionism can be, and very often is, a cause of paralysis in even the best meaning of people.  In fact, it is more apt to happen to the very best meaning of people.

How many times have we not started a task because we didn’t know where to begin, and the mountain before us seemed too steep to climb?  How many times have we failed to do something because it couldn’t be completed perfectly on the first try?  How many times have we failed to ask a question in class because we didn’t want our friends to know that we needed some help understanding a topic?  How many times have we not tried something new because of the fear of failure?

Take a moment and think about the things that make you angry or that frustrate you.  How many times do we get frustrated with someone because we feel that they have in some way wronged us?  How many times do we get bent out of shape because a line is moving too slowly, or the computer needs to be re-booted, or the Internet is running slowly.  How many times have we lashed out at people or made fun of them because they are less than “perfect?”  

How often do we grow frustrated when one of our teachers makes a mistake?  What about when we don’t get an A?  After all, we have always gotten an A! But perhaps the material is much more difficult now and we may need to increase our effort some if we still want that A. 

The expectation of perfectionism this side of Heaven is a pipe dream.  It will never happen.  It can’t happen.  And our belief that it somehow will happen is crippling.

In our Bible classes, we see laid out for us plainly, and without any attempt to cover or hide, the faults and mistakes of every single character, save one – Christ Jesus.  And it was he, the Master Teacher, who said that we should remove the beam in our own eye so that we may see clearly enough to help our brother remove the speck of sawdust in his eye. 

When we study the lives of great men and women, we discover that they all made mistakes.  What contributed to their success was not perfection, but perseverance.  The ability to pick oneself up after a failure and move on.  You see confidence, but not smugness.  A willingness to learn and grow and try again and again and again.

Jesus Christ came to this earth, lived a perfect, sinless life, died on the cross, and rose again that you may gain eternal life and enjoy perfection – heavenly, godly, perfection that is only found through Him, and will only be experienced in full once we depart this life.

While we are here, we should focus on excellence.  Doing our very best, and learning from the inevitable mistakes that will come throughout our journey here.  Along the way, we should follow the example of Christ, forgiving our brothers and sisters, and striving to live the life He intended for us to live.  A life that won’t always be perfect, but that can and should be lived to the glory of God each and every day.