The Difference Between Perfection and Excellence

In ministry, it’s easy to become a slave to perfectionism as we try to honor God by showing who He is in the work that we do and in displaying who we are. But we miss the whole essence of our relationship with Him when we operate in perfectionism, as Christ is the only one able to display that quality. Perfection is in God’s nature and no matter how hard we strive or try, it is impossible for us as humans to reach…but that should bring us comfort.

My life has been marked by the struggle of finding identity in perfect performance, I know it’s laughable. I have spent countless hours stressing and anxious nights with little sleep all circling around the issues of never feeling good enough and falling short of being perfect. The reason I was never good enough was due to this idea that anything less than perfect was simply failure. There was no in-between, no good, excellent, or okay but simply passing with perfection or losing with disgrace. Having a warped sense of being human and who God is supposed to be and represent, riddled me more times than I can count. But I’ve started to learn how beautiful the process of grace is and that God expects for me to fall short. As we see in scripture time and time again, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…” Romans 3:23. None of us have been or ever will be perfect.

Trying to be without flaws sets us up for failure. We then start desiring to be invincible, untouchable, and unbeatable. The process and the end game are never holy. 

When we take perfectionism off of the throne of our hearts and allow God to be God it creates this beautiful dynamic of freedom and genuine identity. We choose to no longer operate out of fear but by being excellent in adding God into our equation. 

Let us be a people where we surrender the spirit of perfectionism and pick up a desire to simply walk alongside Jesus with excellence. For as excellence is defined as: “the quality of being outstanding or extremely good”, it takes effort and courage but it is attainable and brings great joy.