The Process of Perfecting

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Last week, I finished (at least I hope I finished) the process of perfecting my thesis. When I met with my committee for my defense, they had a list of corrections that needed to be made. On
Wednesday morning of last week, I retyped the last footnote and printed out a copy of the paper (no small feat, since it was over 150 pages long!). Then, for the next 4 hours, I went page by page, looking at the corrections that had been noted and then at the corrected copy, to make sure I didn't miss anything. And sure enough, I did. When I found a mistake, I had to come back to the computer, find the mistake, fix it and then reprint that page. It was a long, painstaking process--one I don't want to ever do again.

As Christian, our time on earth is just that--a process of perfecting. As United Methodist, we believe that all Christians are (or should be) moving on towards perfection. As a minister, when asked by Bishop Solomon whether I was going on towards perfection, I answered "yes." When asked if I expected to get there in this life, I answered "yes." Some people struggle with that concept. They don't see how anyone will ever, in this life, be perfect.

And we know that! As United Methodist, we know that none of us are or ever will be "perfect people." We all make mistakes and we all sin--whether we mean to or not. When we talk about "perfection", we are talking about the concept of being "perfected in Christian love." What we mean by that is that there will come a time in our lives when everything we do and say is motivated by love. Love will become the driving force pushing everything we do. When you get to that point, you are perfected. And between here and there, you are moving on toward perfection. Will we ever be perfect as the world defines perfect? No! But that doesn't change the fact that we are called to be perfected in Christian love.

For my paper, the process of perfection took about 4 hours. In our lives, the process may take 30, 40 or even 50 years. The issue isn't so much how quickly you get there but that you keep on keeping on--one foot in front of the other. One step at a time.