So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
I Corinthians 13:13
But when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away.
I Corinthians 13:10
I don’t say this often enough. Thank you for reading what I humbly offer each day. Thank you for your encouragement. And most of all, thank you for your prayers. They are felt. They are needed. Thank you.
Many people are sports fans. We turn on college and professional sports for entertainment. Even those who are not that interested in sports turn on the summer or winter Olympics every four years. What we see on TV or in person is a polished final product. No one sees the years of practice, no one sees the mistakes one makes as he or she learns how to play. No one sees the moments of doubt when one wonders “Am I really good enough?” No one sees rehab from injuries. None of these scenes make the television screen. Yet behind every athlete who “appears” perfect, there is a lot of imperfection that is not seen or known. However, there is no one who makes it in sports who hasn’t suffered imperfections and setbacks. And even when one is a star on the screen, still imperfections and setbacks happen which we do see. We just don’t see the ones that happen off screen.
The walls of our churches are adorned with icons of saints. In the lives of the saints, we read about miracles, writings, and witnesses as martyrs. Occasionally we will read about a story of extreme repentance. For instance, St. Mary of Egypt lived for forty-seven years in the desert in repentance. But that is captured in a sentence or two. No writing captures the agony, struggle, or loneliness connected to those forty-seven years.
We know that practice makes perfect. And behind every athlete and ever saint, there are years of imperfection that have to be overcome. Those years of practice prepare the Olympian for the perfection needed to win a medal. They prepare the athlete to excel on the highest levels. And they prepare the Christian to stand before Christ, make a defense of his or her life, and be admitted into the Kingdom of heaven.
What happens if at the time when the competition comes, the athlete is not ready, then the competition will be a continuation of their imperfection. And the same thing happens for the Christian, when the day of reckoning comes, if imperfections haven’t been worked on through repentance, then one does not reach the Kingdom of heaven and remains in imperfection for eternity.
St. Paul writes in I Corinthians 13:10, But when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away. This is true. When Christ comes again in glory to judge the living and the dead (as we confess in the Creed), those who are judged worthy to enter into Paradise will have their imperfection pass away. Because when the perfect Christ comes, all those who are redeemed by Him will become like Him, living in a state of perfection. There will be no imperfection in heaven.
As a former high school and college athlete, I can say most of us did not like conditioning. We all liked playing in the games, and some of us even enjoyed the technical components of practice (my sport was soccer). Hardly any of us liked running laps or lifting weights, but these were a necessary part of getting us ready to play. In fact, we couldn’t play well if we were not conditioned properly. Many times, when we were running, in order to pass the time that I was not enjoying, I would daydream of how well I hoped to do on the field and this would motivate me to keep going. When we were practicing, I wouldn’t necessarily think about the game, but rather about getting more and reps (repetitions) of some skill in so that when the game happened, I would be playing almost in instinct and with the muscle memory of what we had done in practice. When the game came, there was no need for nerves, but rather putting into play what we had practiced so thoroughly, using a body that had been conditioned for the rigors of a long game played in hot weather.
Christianity works in the same way. There is some conditioning involved. This is the private devotions that no one sees. The private prayer, the private reading of Scripture, the private battle within each of us to believe, and to behave accordingly. Prayer and repentance cannot be measured or quantified, it has to be done, it has to be battled for. The practice is when we get with the “team” to worship. What we do as a church community is practice for eternal life. We are supposed to get a lifetime of reps in as far as worship. And with proper conditioning (private devotion) and practice (worship and service to others), when it’s time for the game (the perfect God comes to examine our worthiness to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven), it becomes a natural next step because we’ve conditioned and practiced well.
The Perfect God is coming. And then the imperfect world will pass away. Those who have strived for perfection will enter into the perfect Kingdom of God. Those who have not will be consigned to Hades and be stuck in imperfection for eternity. How we condition affects how we practice. How we practice affects how we play, or whether we are even ready to play. The Christian life is designed to help us condition and practice, so we are ready to enter into the Kingdom of God.
Lord, only You are perfect. I have layers of imperfection. As I go through my day today, help me to have the discipline to condition my soul through prayer and Scripture reading. Help me practice what I believe through worship and service to others. Help me to remember that the game is coming, and to be ready to meet You, the perfect God. Remember me in Your Kingdom, and grant me the forgiveness of my sins in this life, and shedding of imperfections so that I may receive You, the perfect God, for eternity. Amen.
The perfect is coming. Will the perfect God find us ready for His perfection, or stuck in our own imperfection? Prayer helps us deepen our love for God. Worship and service help us strengthen our love for others. Taken together, love helps us get ready to meet the perfect God.
