Perfect is Boring

So I sit at my computer this morning, thoughts rolling through my brain. I need to put them to paper (or laptop) or they just won't go away. I've been pondering some things for a long time and I think I've come up with a project for myself for the next little while. I'm typing it here because I'd like to document it's progress. Since I'm pretty sure no one checks this blog anymore (since I never post anyway!) I think it's a safe place to document my new adventure.

We visited a new church on Sunday to watch a family member be baptized. The service was beautiful and the speaker was quite good. In fact I've been pondering some of the things he said for two days. The verse was 1 Peter 3: 8-9. His topic was being a good listener in a sermon series on "Doing Life Together". Since he ended his sermon with a plug for his churches life groups I can only assume that his objective was to drive people to join a Life Group. What I've been pondering however, were his statistics on loneliness in America. He stated that 1 in 4 Americans would say they don't have ANYONE that they feel they can really talk to. The average American has 2 good friends with which he or she feels safe to share. In an age of social networking applications one might think that this wouldn't be possible. But clearly it is and I believe the evidence of it is all around us.

So I began to think about what life would look like if those of us who followed Christ stopped living in a L'Oreal commercial and started really following Christs teaching. What if our goal wasn't to convert our neighbors to Christ but simply to love them? Would those numbers change?

So my new litte project? Well it's to simply do just that. I'm going to attempt to love my neighbors (whether they live near me or not), with no expectations. I'm going to try to listen more than I talk. I will attempt to love my neighbor as myself. I know this isn't going to be easy and it most certainly won't be smooth. I have issues... many, many issues. But I think that's a part of the beauty of it. If I stop trying to be perfect I'm being more of who I really am. A friend of mine recently posted her family motto to FaceBook...perfect is boring. I like it. I wish all churches would adopt it and I think I'm going to remember that next time I'm talking to someone.