Good News for Perfectionists By Kim HylandSample

Day Seven

Heavenly Minded

Scripture: John 11:25-26

A key to finding freedom from the bonds of perfectionism is to live with a long view of today and embrace the reality of our eternal lives. This switch in perspective has the power to take us from a life consumed with what we can see and know and cram into one short, frustrated lifetime to a life lived out of the potential to affect eternity every single day. Living with eternity in mind puts our temporal lives on earth into perspective. It causes us to realize our actions today have eternal implications and to live like it. 

When my life is consumed with shortsighted earthbound plans and I fail to look to what’s eternal, I accept only the gifts that I call good. But when I remember we are created for eternity, I can see the potential and opportunity in conflicts. I can see the gospel’s relevance in the struggles. I’m okay with not knowing and waiting on God. Because if he’s willing to work out his good will for all eternity, then I can take the struggle, trial, and heartache.

If it was just about the here and now—my comfort on this earth and building my own kingdom—life’s struggles would be the antithesis of my heart’s goals. But when I look at the cross and God’s kingdom, I know I could be a failure in the world’s eyes but a heroine in his. 

It’s ironic. Keeping both our mortality and our eternity in focus actually brings a deeper sense of purpose to our living days. It frees us from the deceptive traps of living for temporary things—the kinds of things that don’t matter once we die. And it opens the doors to courageous choices, dreams, and pursuits that will live long after we have relocated from this world to the next. 

God has a grand, eternal destiny for each of us. May he give us eyes of faith and hope so that we can look at our days, weeks, months, and years with an eternal perspective. 

How does being aware of eternity increase your influence for good on earth? How does it change your view of perfectionism?