Pondering Perfection

I consider myself to be a good person, for the most part. We all have our faults, but that is what makes us human. When a person comes to a point where they believe they have no more faults, I can guarantee you that they will be alone, hungry, and wondering what went wrong. The rest of us would shun him for either being arrogant and obnoxious or (in the event that it is true) shy away from such an image of perfection because it goes against nature.

God created us in his image, so we should always strive for perfection. However, that is all we are: in his image. We are not God, nor should we presume out of scientific conjecture that he does not exist. A human being, by their very nature, cannot actually achieve perfection. Only God is perfect. Perfection as a state of being is completely out of our reach as long as we inhabit these vessels of meat, bone, and blood. But that does not mean we shouldn't try.

And in that process of trying to be perfect, we become creative. This is our goal while we live. To achieve new and greater things in science, in health, medicine, spirituality, and life. Our drive to find the answers, to dig up our past in order learn about our future, to explore the unknown territories of our universe, great or small...God has placed it there so that we may learn more about Him in the process.

Who else but a perfect God could have created such a universe? Everyday, new leaps in science are being made, but every leaps increases our knowledge of the complexity of the cosmos ten-fold. Albert Einstein himself once said, "I want to know God's thoughts. The rest are simply details."

Our natural creativity is the direct result of a loving and perfect God bestowing his greatest gift upon his creation; imagination. It is this burning passion for understanding that has led so many people to believe in an almighty creator. That burning sense of come-on-there's-gotta-be-more-than-this is the catalyst of change. And it was put there for a reason; to strive for perfection through creation.

And for once, the destination does not matter in the least. It's a long, treacherous road, but one so filled with wonders along the way that we don't find it repellent, but we embrace it with vigor. So many "Christians" try to completely cut themselves off from the world, but I say that is the worst possible thing you can do. Think about it. Jesus did not go to the "good" people, but the sinners, the farmers, the fishermen, the scholars. He told them to follow him and he showed them that there was more. He wasn't a charismatic preacher, he wasn't particularly charming, he was simply a carpenter who showed the world that they were blind. He opened their eyes to new and exiting horizons, and they embraced it. We are not supposed to shun the world, but embrace it, poke it, prod it, and lead it to new places.

If all God wanted was for his creation to love him, he wouldn't have given us free will. He would not have made the tree of knowledge in the first place. The Fall was God's gift to humanity. Without it, our love would mean no more than a houseplant loving light from a window. But because He loved us, he gave us up. Just as He did for his own son. Our universe is there because God wants us to dig deep into our world, and to love Him all the more because of what we discover there.

So I say don't shun the world, don't turn your back on the atheists, the scientists, the agnostics, and the insert-label-here groups, but instead join them in the common pursuit of perfection, that we might all find God together. It's only a matter of time.