Not The Boss Of UsSample

Day Three

Excellence Over Perfection

Scripture: Colossians 3:24

In today’s world, life is an always-on, photo-ready, photo-shopped reality—anytime, anywhere, even when we’re alone. The audience is always watching. And the bar for success is set at an impossible height, where it stays just out of reach. 

But oddly enough, the only thing that gives life to “perfect” is the idea of it. Perfection isn’t real. Neither are so many of the other marks set on a variety of self-worth-defining achievement scales. 

These standard-setting marks rarely travel alone. They bring an entourage that acts more like thieves than companions. They threaten to steal precious time, bogging us down with worries and fears and pressures that cloud any ability to truly relish the moments and the people around us. 

Except in objective, quantifiable cases, such as a multiple-choice exam, perfect is subjective—a far cry from achievable aspirations. Yet we find it hard to believe that our value has nothing to do with how we perform—probably because almost everything around us sends a message that love and acceptance arrive only when we’re good or have done enough to warrant their arrival. So much of belonging and acceptance appears tied to positive performance—that can include grades, a promotion, or even diet and exercise. Striving for a perfect appearance can be a dangerous treadmill leading to nowhere—except to frustration at best, self-harm at worst. 

I recently told my teenage daughter: “I don’t know what is stealing your self-worth, but it’s not real. Whatever has tricked you into thinking you’re okay only if certain things are true is telling you a lie. None of those things define you. Measuring marks change constantly. And your self-worth, you, who you are isn’t tethered to things that move all the time.” 

No comment, but listening, which is so much better than being ignored or experiencing a slammed door. So I went on: “I’m telling you that the things that act so important today will be gone, likely forgotten, and completely different tomorrow. They are not the boss of us.” 

Change itself is the constant. So why place our precious self-worth in the hands of performance or perfection, which live in a perpetual-motion environment? 

Thanks, but no thanks. I’d rather seek a Truth that never changes—now that’s something worth believing.

What is your experience with social media? In what ways does it sometimes steer you away from Truth?