Perfect-ish

To be honest, I spent about 10 minutes coming up with the title for this devotional.

Yep, 10 minutes!

That’s about eight to nine minutes more than I should have spent on it.

All because I tend to drift toward that beautiful tragic state of perfectionism. I can’t help it. I want everything I do to be excellent. No matter what it is, big or small, I want it to be utterly perfect. No kinks, misalignments, shortcomings, or smudges.

Perfect!

Now, a desire to do all things well sounds like a virtuous pursuit, but there’s also a danger lurking close beside. That said, today we’re going to consider our second simplification question:

“Where is good enough, good enough?”

We all have a lot going on. There’s regularly a myriad of people, projects, and tasks all vying for our attention and investment—from detailed client pitches, to lengthy quarterly reports, to picking out new company cars (personally, I vote for Teslas). We rarely suffer from a lack of things that need to be done. But not everything needs to be done in the same manner.

Not everything needs to be done to perfection. Some things can just be good enough. The trick is to properly determine what falls into each category—what requires minimal attention and adequate execution versus what demands full attention and perfectly crafted production. That’s where the value of our second simplification question comes into play. It becomes the grid through which we run everything.

Jesus Himself recognized this.

In Luke 4, Jesus is in the town Capernaum. He’s been teaching, healing people, and casting out demons—all good things. Then as He was finishing His morning prayer and alone time with the Father, the people of the town came looking for Him. They began trying to persuade Him not to leave. But Jesus was not swayed. He told them that He must preach the good news of the Kingdom to other towns because that’s why He was sent.

Jesus determined that the work He had done in Capernaum was good enough. So, He left. Then He turned his attention to what mattered most: preaching the good news to others.

As we look at all the things we’re responsible for, finding where good enough is good enough can be a breath of fresh air. And it will help us stay focused on what really matters.

White Space Moment

Think about the things you need to get done this week or month. Ask yourself the following questions:  

• What are the most important things I need to focus on?  
• What are some things I can be OK with just being good enough?

Share the answers with a friend or colleague. Ask them to help keep you accountable.