perfection

I’ve been struggling again with my perfection thing. Lately it’s been with my latest book publishing project—with getting the book cover perfect, centered. Now I’m trying decide whether I will just leave it, or send it back to the printer and try again. I will take another day or two to make my decision. But I just hate to be delayed again. This is why I hate publishing—delay, delay, delay. My painting is somewhat the same. I mean, I am a perfectionist on that too. I don’t want to see any mistakes. Oh, I long for my perfect, redeemed body when I shall see Him face to face and be like Him.

It’s Monday—new beginnings. A day when I like to read the comic Garfield. A day to be lazy and need my coffee. Laughing helps. I also have found some help this morning reading an article in the sports section of the newspaper about how my baseball team did. I enjoy reading how our newest pitcher, Keuchel, did—so encouraging to hear his positive words as to how he went about his pitching.

I’ve been reading the book Mayflower, by Nathaniel Philbrick. There is so much in this book that I didn’t know about how or country got started. There was so much tragedy and death that I had no idea about. And most people know hardly anything about what is called King Philip’s war in 1675-1676. This war, the English against the Indians, was so very brutal—even worse than the Civil War, but thank God it was short. This was all before the better things happened—like the writing of the Constitution, etc. But overall, our country still was born of much blood and strife and prayer.

And now it seems that our country is on the edge of great disaster and ruin. Much prayer is needed. We need to turn to 2 Chron. 7:14, to find the promise of God if we will pray. We who are Christians need to pray.

Things to stay away from:

All new age rainbow stuff.
AI-Jesus. If asked about this, point them to the true Jesus in the Gospels.
AI-bible. It is false.

Been thinking about perfection. I always try to be perfect at my job—house painting. And at my publishing—getting things just right. But at other things like house cleaning, I know I am not too perfect at. My driving could use some improvement too.

I’m going through a real tragedy right now. The title of my new book is not perfectly centered. It’s driving me up the wall. And if I want to fix it, it will take two or three weeks for the approval process to go through. Should I fix it or just leave it be imperfect? Will anybody really notice—or care? Probably not, except me. Funny, that’s the same with my painting. If I make a small mistake nobody will notice except me—unless I point it out.

Some people are so meticulous at house cleaning and at the way they look. Everything looks perfect. But those same people might not be so perfect in their thoughts—in their moral purity. For them it’s all a matter of what people see. I think this is true for me too. People will see my book covers and my paint job, but they can’t see my heart. But God sees my heart and He is very concerned about what I think. All my sins are against Him. And that is the greatest tragedy!

How will I clean up my heart, make my heart more perfect? That was the concern and the prayer David had. He knew he had sinned against God and he knew his heart was unclean. So, he prayed for a clean heart (Ps 51).

Only God can clean our heart and make us more perfect, because he is perfect. He is absolutely perfect in every way. And some day—after daily washings—we will be so clean and perfect just like Him. No worries then. All will be right. Perfect.