So You Want to Be Perfect? Then Stop Striving, and Look!

Do you know what’s disconcerting? When you realize you’ve been looking for something that doesn’t exist. That’s where I found myself on the morning of New Year’s Day.

The day before, I heard this intriguing question: “What is your vision for your life?” What should it be? I pondered. Verses started racing through my mind. Hmm ... I think I know ... and I don’t think that’s my vision. I need to examine this.

So I did. And do you know what I discovered? My vision was to be the perfect wife, the perfect mom, the perfect employee, the perfect person. But do you know what else I discovered? (Shh! It seems to be a secret.) That perfect woman doesn’t exist.

I thought I was striving for the highest possible goal. After all, what can be higher than perfection? But I had to ask: God, what’s Your vision for me? What’s Your goal for my life?

Huh. Not perfection? Well, not directly.

This is His vision for me and for all of His children: “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son” (Romans 8:29 NIV).

That’s His vision for me—the likeness of His Son!

This was His vision even from the beginning. When God created mankind, He said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). Another word for image is reflection, and another word for likeness is representation.

“The Godhead, three in one” created you and created me to reflect and represent Himself. Jesus is “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15) and “the exact representation of his being” (Hebrews 1:3).

“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2). Note: He makes my faith perfect—not me!

So what’s your vision? What’s mine? Is it your “idol-ology” of strength, prestige, or perfection? Or is it Jesus?

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