"I'm Not Perfect" || When It Feels Like Everything You Do and Are Is In Need of Redemption

It's easy to put on a face--an outward appearance. To make a show. To say, "I've got this all together."

You've met people who do that. You've read the blogs they write about what looks like aesthetic lives (are you one of them?) and then you try and measure up. Look for their secret. And your only success is in making yourself feel more miserable. So you put on your "I've got it all together, too" face.

Even though...you really don't.

Even though, truly? We're so afraid to let others see what we don't understand and what we haven't experienced yet, that we build up, patch up, push back, hide it away...and we smile, because we can hardly see the real us anymore, either.

Because, somewhere along the line, we learned that hiding the imperfect is easier than squarely facing ourselves in the mirror.

In these times we live in, perfection is the aspiration. (Nobody seems to take the time to think about the fact that those people who seem to be living Pinterest-worthy lives?--they're really just searching too.) And so you measure (almost everybody's doing it). Measure your talents, measure your height & weight, measure your past, measure your relationships, measure your grades, measure your accomplishments...and you find that it's not enough. That you can't compete. Every accomplishment that once made you wonder at yourself, now that you see someone else as superior, makes you wonder that you should ever have gloried in it. You discover this: that no matter how hard you've striven...that you're not enough.

You're looking in the wrong direction.

every time you compare yourself with another
every time you measure your worth by the height of your accomplishments
every time you feel like it's just not worth it to keep going anymore

...you're looking at yourself.  And without Jesus, it's all true. Just look at the book of Ecclesiastes. Without the LORD of life, living is vain. As it stands, all my righteousness is as dirty rags (Isaiah 64:6). Anything and everything I do, when stacked to suit my desires and glory, will never be enough. I am not--you are not--enough.

We're not enough... but Jesus Christ is.

Until we experience the realness of our own brokenness and who we aren't when we're on our own, we won't see Jesus as He really is--Wholeness and Fullness--and why He came to earth? That's the secret. And that's the missing piece of the puzzle--that Jesus is the Peace to the missing and the puzzle of your life.

He takes all the brokenness, all the mistakes, all the purposeful sins, all the things we've tucked away and maybe even forgotten...and He binds us up, forgives us, removes our sins from us, strips away the hidden and the ugly and the broken, and He remembers us to the uttermost.

"...but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." -Romans 5:8

"Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them." -Hebrews 7:25

"For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust." -Psalm 103:11-14

"For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." -2 Corinthians 5:21

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." -2 Corinthians 5:17

If you have JESUS, you've got something to give this world. Once we realize our brokenness and find salvation in the Savior, all the measuring goes away. Now we are enough. Now we are complete. We are not defined by our pasts, by our worldly gains, by our talents, by our works, by our feelings...these labels the world uses. We don't need to look to the world for fulfillment. We don't even need to look next door (or the next blog over) to make us complete! There is One that defines us, and One alone. We are full to overflowing, because we are God's children.

"See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are." (1 John 3:1a, emphasis mine)

Look in the mirror now! Jesus Christ is redeeming even today. He is restoring. He is making us new. He is all we need--just ask Him.

Let's think about THAT story this Christmas!

Blessings & Love, and merriest of Christmases,
Georgie Grace