Perfect Can Be The Enemy Of Good
There’s an old saying, “Anything worth doing is worth doing right.“ The perfectionist in me wants to latch on to that saying, however, it should probably be coupled with “Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly.” I have to admit, just saying that feels like sandpaper on my skin. The truth is, neither of these statements by themselves paint a complete picture, but together they can help to form a philosophy for our spiritual life.
Have you ever heard someone spout off an impromptu, elegant, beautiful prayer and thought to yourself “I wish I could pray like that”? I hope it goes without saying, but prayer is one of these spiritual disciplines that we should all be engaging in. I would also hope that anyone who prayers will try to prayer well. But here’s where doing things poorly comes into play. Too many times we will look at the person who can pray beautifully and compare that to our own ability to pray. When we think that we aren’t doing it right we might just stop doing it. After all, anything worth doing is worth doing right. Do you see it yet? Sometimes we get so caught up in having to do things right or perfect that we abandon all attempts because we won’t measure up to our own standards.
Which one do you think pleases God more? Not praying at all because you think you aren’t good at it or fumbling your way through some words that you’re not even sure qualify as a prayer? While I never want to presume to know God’s feelings, I think in this case it’s safe to say that he would much rather us have any form of communication rather than no attempt at communication. Intellectually, it seems a little ridiculous to think that anything we say when we talk to God is somehow going to impress him or be ranked on some scale. Sometimes we feel like our prayers are compared, but I can almost assure you that God doesn’t care how eloquent your prayer is, but rather cares about your heart in the prayer.
If that doesn’t encourage you, perhaps this verse will:
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. Romans 8:26
We’re not alone. We have the Spirit who intercedes for us, which is a mind blowing idea when you think about it.
Prayer isn’t the only thing worth doing “poorly”. There’s giving, where it’s much better to give 1% of your income to God rather than nothing. It’s better to read just a verse a day that never read your Bible at all. Now before you yell at me, let me clarify one thing. This isn’t the goal. Tithing, praying, reading your Bible, serving, all of these things are worth doing. And because they are worth doing, yes sometimes they are worth doing poorly. BUT, hanging out in the mediocrity of them isn’t something we should strive for. These things are worth doing, and they are worth doing well. But if you feel like you just can’t do them well, for whatever reason, start the journey of doing what you can. Then push yourself to do better. Be intentional about not settling. To use another corny saying, “Sometimes you have to walk before you can run.”