Prayer as a Path to Love
Listening as an Act of Mercy and Love
Reflection By Robbin Brent
Go out of yourself and let God be God in you.
- Meister Eckhart
Last Sunday Heidi Kim explored the “relentless tyranny of perfectionism” and the harm it has done, individually and communally. She shared that spending far too much time regretting what she hasn’t done gets in the way of her doing what she can. She ended by asking, “How might we let go of “perfect” to embrace what is well and true?”
I keenly relate to Heidi’s description of perfectionism as a relentless tyranny. I would add to that the tyranny of busy-ness in order to mask my fears about how well I am doing in life. It seems like no matter how hard I work on a project, problem, or relationship (or worry about the situation while procrastinating), I often second-guess myself and the sufficiency of my efforts. This has softened over the years as I have patiently addressed this painful tendency, and now, instead of an underlying driving cadence of next, and next, and next, I more often experience a sense of ease and openness. To move from relentless tyranny to freedom and a place of spaciousness in which we shift from “Here I am God,” to “Here we are.”
The season of Lent offers us an opportunity to reflect on essential questions. We may want to consider how to let go of perfectionism in order to be more available to all that God desires to offer through us. To ask what do we need to let go of in order to more freely enter God’s prayer for us? What do we need to let go of in order to be freer to love others in God with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our strength, and with all of our mind?
Making It Personal: Can you think of a recent situation that has been impaired by the relentless tyranny of perfectionism? What questions would you like to ask God right now? Do you have a trusted friend or small group where you can share your journey and what you might want to let go of during this season of Lent?
Follow along with us this Lent season with our daily devotional and engage in discussion in our closed facebook group moderated by Robbin Brent, Jan Kwiatowski, and Scott Stoner.
In this group, participants will have a chance to share their responses to the prompts in the daily readings, and also the chance to receive additional material for reflection.