Thursday, May 20, 2021

Kathleen Norris

Perfectionism

"Perfectionism is one of the scariest words I know. It is a marked characteristic of contemporary American culture. . . . Martha Stewart might be seen as the high priestess of Perfection: one dare not let the mask slip, even in one's home, where all is perfect, right down to the last hand-stenciled napkin ring.

"I had never before thought to compare Jesus Christ to Martha Stewart and am fortunate that the gospels themselves can rescue me from my predicament. The good news about the word 'perfect' as used in the New Testament is that it is not a scary word, so much as a scary translation. The word that has been translated as 'perfect' does not mean to set forth an impossible goal, or the perfectionism that would have me strive for it at any cost. It is taken from a Latin word meaning complete, entire, full-grown. To those who originally heard it, the word would convey 'mature' rather than what we mean today by 'perfect.'

To 'be perfect,' in the sense that Jesus means it, is to make room for growth, for the changes that bring us to maturity, to ripeness. To mature is to lose adolescent self-consciousness so as to be able to make a gift of oneself, as a parent, as teacher, friend, spouse."
— Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith