What does it take to be perfect and what's so attractive about perfection? It's what comes first, before the words, the judgments of others, the name drops, and unsolicited advice. Before all of that was God's divine and perfect way of doing and living.
As we aim for perfection, we become more aware of the judgments others bring into our purview as well as potential or pending judgments just around the corner. We have a decision to make at this point of knowing if we want to be perfect, to reach the ultimate way of being by God's design. Let the judgments of others dictate our next steps or let them inform our next moves.
DICTATION
It's not unlike a person taking our every word and writing them down for us so that others may receive the message. In the case of judgment, we who are being judged are now choosing to take each word and write them on your heart. At that point, anyone paying attention to us witnesses a story that has been editorially marked up by the judgments of others. Somewhere inside of us and in expressions and behaviors in our self-presentation is the original, unique, and divinely created being God had in mind. However, the influencers who think their words and opinions should carry weight in our lives have been given the liberty to offer their judgments of advice, correction, suggestion, and authority, and as the judged we now give their dictations legs to walk on.
INFORMATION
What we have all around us is a world of passive thoughts. Even those directed at us fall short of the unmatched ability of God to say "Come follow me" and we readily oblige the request without questions. After all, who can deny when God speaks? For everyone else, learning and insight from judgments others offer are just information with no real power and no divine influence. The judgments of others keep their place and the judged decide what makes for a good addition to God's story that resides within and is waiting to be told.
PERFECTION PERSONIFIED
What is God's divine and open secret to what it takes to be perfect? Love. What informs our ability to make such a decision, to choose information over dictation? Love does this. Perfect love. That divinely-inspired kind of love is persistent, never giving up on self, on others, and on God. It is an investment at the root of our being that God put in place because God knows we can't filter the noise of the world of thoughts floating around us without help.
As we train our bodies to know how to engage with muscle memory and repetition, so we engaged the muscle of the Spirit. We listen with an open heart and mind to how, through whom, and where God is speaking. Listening to God over everyone else takes practice, practice in living a life based on the foundational principle of love.
Go therefore and be perfect in God's eyes. Love before any other principle, opinion, political stance, or conviction. There will be room to discern around the rest of the judgments of others as well as the judgments we make as part of this human experience. After love gets a fighting chance to take root, then the right information will find its way to you. Holy righteousness will have the foundation to receive Spirit-led power over ignorance, lack of understanding, impatience, and assumptions.
