Scripture ~ “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.”
2 Corinthians 12:9a
Spiritual Focus ~ “If you look closely at a tree, you’ll notice its knots and dead branches, just like our bodies. What we learn is that beauty and imperfection go together wonderfully.” –Matthew Fox, spiritual theologian, Episcopal priest, author, and activist for gender justice and eco-justice.
Breath Prayer ~ perfectly imperfect
Devotion ~ A recent social media post started a conversation about how we write ourselves into the stories of the Bible. For instance, in the story of Mary and Joseph looking for a room at the inn, many folks say they would never have turned them away, others readily admit they would have. Think for a minute: would you have denied Jesus as Peter did? Betray Jesus as Judas did? How about the story of the prodigal son—where do you see yourself in that story? If we are honest, we would likely admit we don’t know. We’d like to think we would do the right thing, that we would have the perfect response to the situation, but in truth, we are imperfect humans and our actions often reflect that imperfection. When our actions are counterintuitive to our loving nature, we layer guilt and judgement on ourselves. However, our scripture and spiritual focus point to the beauty of this scenario. When we acknowledge our tendency toward perfectionism or imperfection, we are drawn back to the promise that God’s grace is all we need and God’s power works best in weakness.
Our desire to be perfect is sometimes driven by the idea that if we act perfectly, God will love us more. But the truth found in scripture points to a God who loves us in our imperfection and works through imperfect people to build God’s community of love. Knowing that God can work love into the imperfect characters in scripture like David or Saul/Paul, gives us hope that God can create love, community, and beauty in us. By God’s grace we are gathered into a community of love, imperfect as we are. What would it mean to stop holding ourselves to a standard of perfection, and start holding ourselves to a standard of grace?
A stereotypical image of Western yoga depicts yogis doing perfect poses with “perfect” bodies. It has taken at least a decade to reconfigure that image so that yoga is seen as something for everyBODY. Yoga pioneers like Baron Baptist started the conversation by saying, “There is no perfect pose except what is perfect in your body.” The current trend toward body positivity has built on the idea that what is considered perfect is what feels perfect for you in your body…and we are beautiful—imperfections and all—held together wonderfully by God’s grace.
