Reminds me of the attitude in some churches: God is worth the best. Which is true. But the sub-text is often, 'my definition of best not your actual best which isn't good enough'.
"No one should abandon duties
because he sees defects in them.
Every action, every activity, is surrounded
by defects as a fire is surrounded by smoke."
Bhagavad Gita
(I8.47)
THen there is the issue of unintended consequences. Sometimes we just have to 'do the right thing' because we can't make other people's reactions for them.
Even Jesus' actions were surrounded with defects: the potential for drunkenness for the guests at the wedding at Cana, the potential of the healed lepers to do harm they hadn't previously been capable of in all sorts of ways, the danger that Mary Magdelen might relapse, leading the soldiers at the cross into gambling by wearing such a nice garment, and then the biggest of them all; calling Judas into the disciple band where he had the chance to betray the Son of God with all the personal consequences for him flowing from that ...
One of Maggi's commentors links it to Jesus saying 'be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect'
"perfect" in the Greek is 'teleios' which has alternative translations of 'complete' or 'whole' I tend to take that as meaning that we are to be what we are called or dreamed by God to be. (Teleology is the idea of defining or understanding something by its end/purpose). I prefer that because it helps remove the sometimes crippling and invidious comparisons and the thought that we somehow are to live out someone else's 'perfect' -or best.
God is fully Godself and whole and complete.
maggi dawn: perfectionism kills:On Del.icio.us: Jesus, defects, Bhagavad Gita, consequences, unintended consequences
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