Embracing Our Imperfections

 Richard Rohr

Most mainline Christians pay sincere lip service to grace and mercy, but in the practical order believe life is almost entirely about performance and moral achievement. 
—Richard Rohr  

Monday 
If there is such a thing as human perfection, it seems to emerge precisely from how we handle the imperfection that is everywhere, especially in ourselves. What a clever place for God to hide holiness. 
—Richard Rohr  

Tuesday 
When we can let go of what other people think and own our story, we gain access to our worthiness—the feeling that we are enough just as we are and that we are worthy of love and belonging. 
—Brené Brown 

Wednesday 
Rules alone had left me hollow inside, but the sense that the Spirit was freeing me to be in relationship was so life-giving that all I could call it was joy.
—Juanita Campbell Rasmus 

Thursday 
Perfection is not the elimination of imperfection, as we think. Divine perfection is, in fact, the ability to recognize, forgive, and include imperfection!—just as God does with all of us. 
—Richard Rohr  

Friday 
Paul asked God over and over again to remove this thorn, but God said no. God said that grace and mercy had to be enough, that nothing awful or fantastic that Paul did would alter the hugeness of divine love. This love would and will have the last say. 
—Anne Lamott  

Week Thirty-One Practice

Embracing the Whole of Life

In the epilogue to her book I Am Maria, excerpted here with permission from Maria Shriver’s Sunday Paper, Shriver invites readers to discern how we can engage with our imperfect world:  

Everywhere I seem to look these days, I see people suffering from pain and heartbreak. Struggle and loneliness. I sense a yearning for something different, something more spiritual. What is often feels fragile and uncertain, and everything we thought we knew about ourselves and the world seems to change by the day. We are told these are unprecedented times, but I think this is simply life. 

In this time of constant change and constant noise, each of us has an opportunity for introspection, an awakening, and a more fulfilling life. All of the old rules are gone, which means it’s a good time for each and every one of us to dig deep and ask ourselves why am I here, what is my purpose, who do I want to become, how do I want to leave a mark on this world, and do I have the courage to examine and possibly alter old beliefs that may be keeping me stuck in a life I’m not meant to be in? 

Life offers a full range of experiences and emotions to each of us. No one escapes the forces and events we are sure will break us. But understanding that those same events are as much a part of one’s life as achieving our dreams—getting that perfect job, falling in love, having a baby—is a valuable life lesson. Having a full, meaningful life means embracing the whole of life—the perceived bad as well as the perceived good. [1] 

Shriver began to write poetry as a way of expressing her desire “to embrace the whole of life.” Here is her poem “Picture Perfect.”  

I thought I had it all   
Or so it seemed to me 
The picture I painted in my head looked beyond perfect to me 
I’ve come to understand that there is no such thing 
Perfect is what we tell ourselves 
What we long to project 
Perfect is just an illusion that covers up the cracks 
So afraid are we of what we cannot see 
That we attach to picture perfect 
And just let it be 

Perfect is what we tell others 
So they look and wonder why 
Why they don’t have perfect in their eyes 

The truth is no one ever lives a perfect little life 
We all have cracks and fissures 
Life is just like that 
But I must say for me 
I thought I had it all 
Or at least enough to suffice 
That is 
                         Until my perfect ran out of time [2]