Be Perfect

JUNE IS FOR CAMPS… And for all of us, that means countless hours of prep time to make sure camp runs smoothly and the campers have an amazingly memorable experience! It is such a fun time of year! Nothing beats teaching players how to do things more efficiently and encouraging them along the way.

One phrase that gets used a lot during this time is “Perfect practice makes perfect performance.” (I definitely used this with our campers the other day.) It has been something that was ingrained in many of us as young children and stuck with us along the way. In the purest sense of the phrase, it is basically saying that what you put in is what you get out, and that there is an element of control that occurs in being able to control the outcome with the input.

GREAT CONCEPT!! Except for one thing… It introduces the additional concept of striving for perfection for a desired outcome—usually of our own strength and power. No matter how great of a practice (or task) performed, it will never be “without mistake or flaw.” Never. We are human. Even in our most valiant effort to be flawless in our striving, we can never perfectly do anything in our own ways. How often have we, as either athletes or now coaches, tried to be “perfectionists” to have the right outcome and come up short? Or, how often have we strived and gotten what we want? A recruit, a championship, a next-level job… If we let it, it can become a vicious cycle of making great personal efforts to achieve or attain something.

Now, take striving out. Matthew 5:48 says, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Being perfect takes on a completely different context in “Kingdom-speak.” All we have to do is “be.” We do not have to strive or strain for it, or try and control the outcome of having a “perfect performance,” whether that is in our camp preparation, our official visits, our scouting report presentations. We can know that God’s desire is for us to BE PERFECT, not DO PERFECT. This does not mean we eliminate hard work and preparation, (think Colossians 3:23—Do your work as unto the Lord), but instead, we can rest in the knowledge and understanding that our perfection is already within us.

So since we know that ONLY in Christ, we are perfect (absolute, complete, having no mistakes or flaws, completely suited for a particular purpose), we can trust that the perfect “you” is already in existence.

What great hope!! We CAN be perfect. We CAN desire God’s perfecting work in us. Every time God is doing work in us and through us, it IS perfect because HE IS PERFECT. The only way He can ever work is perfectly because that is who He is. God is perfect! His ways are perfect.

“As for God, His way is perfect: The Lord’s Word is flawless…” (Psalms 18:30).

Take hope this morning! Choose this hope. Choose His perfecting work in us. Choose to eliminate striving and straining. Choose to BE PERFECT.

Have a great week!!