{"id":486,"date":"2011-02-28T12:26:26","date_gmt":"2011-02-28T12:26:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/2011\/02\/rethinking-perfection.html"},"modified":"2011-02-28T12:26:26","modified_gmt":"2011-02-28T12:26:26","slug":"rethinking-perfection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/02\/rethinking-perfection.html","title":{"rendered":"Rethinking Perfection"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Last fall, I had the opportunity to preach a sermon at the Church of the Good Samaritan. In it, I look at the verse Matthew 5:48: &#8220;Be perfect, as your heavenly father is perfect.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Here&#8217;s a teaser in case you&#8217;re interested in hearing more:&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span>&#8230;When I consider the &#8220;perfect&#8221; version of me, I<br \/>\nautomatically start with physical ideals. I might say, for instance, that an<br \/>\nideal version of me would include four or five more inches of height or twenty<br \/>\nfewer pounds or a wrinkle-free face. After I examine, critique, and mentally<br \/>\ncorrect my appearance, I might next consider my abilities. An ideal version of<br \/>\nme, for instance, would be able to paint. Would be a better gardener. Would be<br \/>\nable to kick a soccer ball with accuracy. Would be able to hem pants and sew on<br \/>\nbuttons. From there, I move to aspects of my character. An ideal version of me<br \/>\nwould be more patient with our children. Would feel more compassion when a<br \/>\nfriend is in need. Would employ greater self-control over food and sleep and<br \/>\nexercise. Would give more money away. Would have more contact with people who<br \/>\nare different from me. But the question for us is whether this is the type of<br \/>\nperfection Jesus is talking about. Does he want us to be perfect like a Lexus<br \/>\nis, supposedly, perfect? Is he talking about me becoming a more physically<br \/>\nattractive, self-sufficient, morally upright human being? Is he talking about<br \/>\nme becoming Wonder Woman? Or is there something else going on here?&nbsp;<\/span><!--EndFragment-->\n<\/div>\n<div><span><br \/><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span>To hear the sermon in full, click <a href=\"http:\/\/www.good-samaritan.org\/sermons\/2010\/2010_10_24_nc.mp3\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last fall, I had the opportunity to preach a sermon at the Church of the Good Samaritan. In it, I look at the verse Matthew 5:48: &#8220;Be perfect, as your heavenly father is perfect.&#8221;&nbsp; Here&#8217;s a teaser in case you&#8217;re interested in hearing more:&nbsp; &#8230;When I consider the &#8220;perfect&#8221; version of me, I automatically start&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Rethinking Perfection - Thin Places<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/02\/rethinking-perfection.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rethinking Perfection - Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last fall, I had the opportunity to preach a sermon at the Church of the Good Samaritan. In it, I look at the verse Matthew 5:48: &#8220;Be perfect, as your heavenly father is perfect.&#8221;&nbsp; Here&#8217;s a teaser in case you&#8217;re interested in hearing more:&nbsp; &#8230;When I consider the &#8220;perfect&#8221; version of me, I automatically start&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/02\/rethinking-perfection.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-02-28T12:26:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"amyjuliabecker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Rethinking Perfection - Thin Places","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/02\/rethinking-perfection.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Rethinking Perfection - Thin Places","og_description":"Last fall, I had the opportunity to preach a sermon at the Church of the Good Samaritan. In it, I look at the verse Matthew 5:48: &#8220;Be perfect, as your heavenly father is perfect.&#8221;&nbsp; Here&#8217;s a teaser in case you&#8217;re interested in hearing more:&nbsp; &#8230;When I consider the &#8220;perfect&#8221; version of me, I automatically start&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/02\/rethinking-perfection.html","og_site_name":"Thin Places","article_published_time":"2011-02-28T12:26:26+00:00","author":"amyjuliabecker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/02\/rethinking-perfection.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/02\/rethinking-perfection.html","name":"Rethinking Perfection - Thin Places","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-02-28T12:26:26+00:00","dateModified":"2011-02-28T12:26:26+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/02\/rethinking-perfection.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/02\/rethinking-perfection.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/02\/rethinking-perfection.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Rethinking Perfection"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/","name":"Thin Places","description":"Amy Julia Becker on Faith, Family, and Disability","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b","name":"amyjuliabecker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","caption":"amyjuliabecker"},"description":"Amy Julia Becker writes about theology, disability, family, and culture. Two major life experiences have shaped her writing and her faith\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcaring for her mother-in-law as she battled cancer and welcoming her daughter Penny into the world after she was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome. Both experiences expanded and enriched her understanding of what it means to be human and to receive each and every person as a gift.\u00c2\u00a0 A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she is the author of Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, and the forthcoming A Good and Perfect Gift (Bethany House). Her essays have appeared in First Things, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Century, ChristianityToday.com, and Bloom, among other online venues.","sameAs":["http:\/\/amyjuliabecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/author\/amyjuliabecker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}