Content With The Imperfect

 I'm beginning to realize just how much of an idealist I am... 

This quality of being able to envision the "perfect scenario" can be an advantage... don't get me wrong: it's a gift to see the optimal conditions of everything and to be able to notice details - the little things that help to make up an even better situation than otherwise could've happened. 

But when the idealist won't leave, it's hard to settle for the imperfect. You look at things and notice all the ways it should've been better and you're left feeling disappointed. And you begin to fixate on all that didn't go right while missing out on all that did. 

"The party was great, except..." 

"I had a good time, although..." 

"It would've been perfect if only..." 

And the mind starts to spin with all the ways you felt let down by the experience or the people involved in it with you. And your feelings then block the reality of just how good everything or everyone else was... all because it. just. wasn't. entirely. perfect! 

Pursue perfection all the time and all you'll get is the constant reminder of how imperfect life really is. Expect the ideal and you fail to see that reality is based in the simple truth that nothing and no-one is truly everything you hope...including yourself. 

The idealist in me makes it hard to move past things sometimes. Maybe you feel the same. 

I'm apt to overlook all the positives of something because I'm stuck on a lone negative that, for me, spoiled the whole, entire thing. And can forget all the good that outweighs that single bad thing and feel like the rest of it was ruined - because it wasn't allll positive. And over time, I can let that one downer fester and get inside of my head and start to erase whatever else happened and bitterness can grow and soul can distance and I can struggle to see past my own flawed perspective to a greater view God or anyone else is looking at. 

When the perfectionist and the idealist meet together, it can downright drive your one, precious self straight up crazy. You can feel as though nothing is ever "good enough" for you...including yourself. You can feel as though you and everything and everybody else is falling short of what could be. 

But is that really the ticket to life abundant? Always getting the perfect results you want? 

Slowly, I'm leaning to notice that the real key isn't achieving optimum outcomes but rather, trusting in an optimum God. A God who is always perfect and who doesn't make a single wrong move ever! It's accepting that the imperfect is where He does His greatest work - that none of us will ever be able to be all who we envision to be. That we'll always be noticing weaknesses and shortcomings and all of the sins all the time but He will be seeing a masterpiece in the making. What productivity and results look like to Him are a far cry from what they look like to us. 

Contentment isn't setting objectives and saying, "I can't be satisfied until it is exactly so," but instead, welcoming life as we're given it. In some things, we can push ourselves to fine-tune details and practice the art of self-discipline, but in most things that matter, always fighting for life as we want it only leads us to greater let-down. 

Want to start discovering more of God? More of joy? More of life? 

Then lay down the unrealistic and start accepting what is. Not that you settle for average or you don't work on yourself or push those around you to always keep growing, keep learning, keep becoming. You just know that we're all works in progress living in an imperfect world with unmet expectations all trying to survive. We're all making wrong moves and missing the point and running right past where He is because we're all struggling to press for the ideal when we ought to be pressing towards Christ. 

The true satisfaction is usually lying where you're not looking. Stare at what went wrong and you fail to see what went right. Focus on what fell apart while there's so much to still admit actually fell together. 

This side of Heaven, you'll always be able to point out things that didn't work out how you wanted them to. But maybe, the real sense of fulfillment is in realizing that it's not always about things "working out" as it is about them "working together for good." 

So maybe it's time we start trying to shelve the idealist and the perfectionist a bit more. Look for ways in which God is turning the flawed into beautiful and accept what didn't play out to your liking as just another launching pad for something greater. Learning this, my friend, just might change everything. 

After all, some of the most beautiful things in life are broken.