I love excuses. In the sense of the effort that we obviously put to divert the true source of responsibility to something completely inappropriate. When I say I love it, that’s because of the opportunity I get to respond to those excuses, or the chance to see how others will accept the pathetic excuses I put up. Don’t get me wrong, I think there are times for explanations, justifications and rationalisations. Sometimes it’s not your/my fault. Yet just like Adam way back in the beginning, it’s as though it’s inbred to defer responsibility when the chips are down or when it looks as though the reputation is at stake.
I heard this one again today. It was a conversation around time-keeping and the questioner was asking whether or not the respondent was good at it. The response was along these lines. Rather than say no, or admit that this is an area of work, it was that classic appeal to the frailties in us all.
What amuses me about this excuse is how it doesn’t actually address the issue. In a very real way it’s like being asked for the directions to your home and using that as a launching-pad to talk about everyone needing a home to live in. Sure we need a home to live in, but that doesn’t give me the directions to your home does it. ‘Nobody’s perfect’ doesn’t actually talk about whether or not you’re good at timekeeping or whatever. Just because nobody’s perfect that is not an excuse to accept substandard behaviour and the lack of a desire to live as righteously as possible. (And living righteously is not about snidely exposing the frailities of others or accepting as acceptable the flaws in the self.)
Jesus is perfect and in His walk on earth He displayed the perfect way to live. Again that was not about condemnation but illumination and motivation for consecration and sanctification. (I wonder if that’s enough with the ‘ations?) As a follower of Christ, I am convicted to pursue the Perfect One. That means the ‘nobody’s perfect’ excuse is as pathetic and redundant as the ‘it was the woman you gave me who gave the fruit’ argument.
Nobody’s perfect is then a call to repentance for everybody. Nobody’s perfect is an appeal to recognise the beauty in perfection and go for it, rather than sitting back accepting it and shrugging the shoulders at every failing in life. It is not about being an obsessive who will not be content until literal perfection is reached and gets irritable and angry when it isn’t. It is about a compassionate approach that doesn’t neglect the righteous call but reinforces it with the extension of mercy because of being in continued receipt of mercy by the one who calls us to perfection.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
dmcd
Life With CD 