Nobody’s Perfect

Nobody’s Perfect

If your favorite football team ended the season with eighteen wins and one loss, chances are you’d be pretty satisfied. After all, that’s quite an accomplishment. But don’t tell that to the New England Patriots or their fans, who have bitter memories of going 18–1. That’s because their only defeat—the sole blemish on an otherwise perfect record—came in the championship game.

On this date in 2008, the New York Giants beat the previously undefeated Patriots in Super Bowl XLII by a margin of 17–14. More than just a game, it was a devastating disappointment for a team that had squashed the competition all year long and had actually beaten the Giants in the final game of the regular season. Everyone expected them to do it again on football’s biggest stage. The Patriots were twelve-point favorites. Perfect. Unstoppable.

Apparently somebody forgot to tell the players from New York. When the game clock expired, the Giants were champs. Eli Manning was named MVP. Parties for the Patriots from Connecticut to Maine turned quiet and ended early. And hundreds of shirts and caps that had already been printed honoring the Patriots’ surefire victory were boxed up and shipped to poor children in Nicaragua. Heartbroken fans stateside didn’t want to be reminded of going 18–1 when they were expecting perfection.

Have you ever expected something or someone to be perfect—including yourself? Maybe an important event? Your GPA? A relationship? That creates a lot of pressure, doesn’t it? And anything short of that mental picture becomes a huge disappointment. The author of Psalm 119 writes in verse 96, “Even perfection has its limits.” There’s nothing wrong with having high hopes. God wants us to strive for excellence. Still, we should always maintain perspective, doing our best to see beauty in things and people as they are. Only God’s commands and Jesus himself are perfect.

Daddy-Daughter Time

Would you consider yourself a perfectionist? Why or why not? Talk about a time when you were disappointed by unmet expectations, how you responded, and what you learned from that experience. If this area is a challenge for you, pray that God will help you extend grace to yourself and others. Tell that imperfect person next to you something you find beautiful about him or her.

What’s The Word?

Even perfection has its limits, but your commands have no limit.   Psalm 119:96