Preparations

Merry Christmas Eve! I wish you all the best this holiday season.

I have not had my act together this Christmas. It’s not like I don’t know the date or the events planned around Christmas – they are the same ones I’ve done each year. But somehow, the grace of the season has escaped me and I’m doing last minute and doing it poorly.

Other years I’ve had everything in place and ready and timed. While I feel more put together, those years have a mechanical feel to them. The spontaneity and gaiety seem to be in short supply when Christmas runs on a tight schedule. I am sure there is a happy medium out there and perhaps that is what we all are working towards.

My religious upbringing taught me to seek Perfection in Love. The Ask the UMC web page explains it this way. “Sanctifying grace draws us toward Christian perfection, which (John) Wesley described as a heart ‘habitually filled with the love of God and neighbor’ and as ‘having the mind of Christ and walking as he walked.'”

I know where I get tripped up is mistaking seeking perfection with being perfect. When things are not perfect it feels as if I’ve failed and when I’ve set up artificial boundaries, even if I excel within those boundaries, I have limited the outside possibilities. Seeking perfection is not about being perfect. It’s a process of being; it’s loving without judgement or expectation. Life is a process, albeit a messy process, where we grow and learn by both mistakes and successes.