Peace, love and joy! Peace on Earth; the Prince of Peace has been born!
The word peace can mean various things: a sense of safety and security, internal contentment and satisfaction, the perception all is or will be well. Or rather, all is as it should be, even if not perfect. In a Midsomer Murder episode, a murder takes place at the “Oblong Foundation.” Their slogan, Perfect Imperfection, promotes the idea that our imperfections are what make us perfect.
Finding inner peace may require accepting this notion of perfect imperfection. When I think of my imperfections, I think of those who love me in spite of them. If love and acceptance were conditional, I might very well fail to meet the conditions. I want, I suspect we all want, to think we could earn unconditional love and acceptance if it were conditional, but take great comfort in the security of believing we will not lose the love or acceptance if we fall short.
Both Old and New Testament express, explore and exemplify unconditional love, acceptance and surrender. Mary is the quintessential role model of an open-mind and open-hearted response to the call and invitation to live these unconditionals with the Lord.
Living these unconditionals, however, requires we reject and set conditions on the evil and selfish deeds and words from individuals and institutions we witness daily. People define and judge humanities’ issues differently, however. Violations of human rights, corrupt economic policies and exploitation of the environment provide examples of varying and conflicting perceptions of right-wrong, good-evil, acceptable-unacceptable.
Unconditional love and acceptance compels action which ultimately changes the conditions of human life. If I unconditionally love my fellow humans, I will work for human rights; if I unconditionally accept human stewardship of the planet, I will work for environmental protection and restoration, etc.
Peace is found in accepting and celebrating humanities’ perfect imperfection. While we all wish the world was at peace, human rights respected and the planet cared for, the imperfection of the situation is perfect, as it is a call and invitation in and of itself.
Journal Questions:
- What are my thoughts and feelings about perfect imperfection? How does it apply to situations in my life and communities?
- What experiences lead me to agree, disagree or qualify the idea that unconditional love and acceptance compel effort to change human life’s conditions?
© 2018 Marilyn MacArthur, all rights reserved
Writing to Pray 