I've heard that in some Eastern and Native American religions, artisans deliberately put flaws in their rugs or blankets, believing that only God could make something perfect. Trust me - I can make an imperfect project without even trying! No deliberate imperfection necessary.
Take the pictures above for instance. We had a boring brown outbuilding on our property when we bought our house a couple of years ago. Little by little, we made improvements to it – a little paint – a few decorative tools to display – and finally, we got to “THE DOOR PROJECT”. I had this all figured out. I saw a picture online of a barn style door made with old tin roofing and some barn board. It was a much better look than an old beige trailer door. However, in the execution, mistakes were made. My husband and I had measured the area for the tin in the center to make sure we had the dimensions right vertically but forgot to cut the section to be centered horizontally. Now, I can’t take any credit for the actual execution of this project. My husband and son spent three hours in the hot June sun on Saturday making my vision come to life. It wasn’t until we had the tin fastened in place on the existing door that we realized that we hadn’t cut it to be centered. My son said, “Hey, it looks rustic!” and said that he uses the word rustic to cover the flaws in anything he builds. We decided to go with it and just kept on going with the door – imperfections and all. It’s rustic, y’all!
It’s June now. How many of you have kept all your New Year’s resolutions? I’ll bet many of you have already messed up - ate too much, smoked a cigarette, skipped a day of exercise, cursed, lost your temper - and have given up because you have been imperfect in keeping your promise to yourself.
Why not treat those mistakes as deliberate imperfections? Keep yourself humble - but keep striving for your goal. We will never get it perfectly right - but we can make permanent improvements in our lives.
I used to work with middle school teachers as an instructional coach. In a discussion with a group of teachers, I talked about using deliberate errors in our own work to see if students can catch the mistakes. One teacher said that when she makes an accidental mistake - she just pretends that she made it on purpose to see if her students were paying attention! Works for me!
It's time to accept your imperfections in life and to work with them. Your house will never be perfectly organized or decorated or cleaned. Your body will never look exactly the way you envision it. Your marriage will still be a union between two imperfect people. Your children will never be Stepford kids. Your job will always have challenges. Your friends and family members will always be flawed people. All that is ok! Bless people with your gifts and talents - imperfectly. It is still a blessing!
God doesn't expect perfection. He provided perfection for us in Jesus. We're only responsible to go after Him and His purpose for our lives. Think about the little craft projects your babies made for you for special occasions. They were far from perfect, but the love and effort that your child displayed by creating them for you was a delight to your heart. In the same way, God is delighted by our attempts to bless Him and to do His work. You'll never be a perfect Christian, but at least be one that is doing something, however "rustic" it may be.
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