sonflour_2001 said:
Howdy peeps. Well, perfection is what I did my undergraduate thesis on. More specifically, I dealt with Christ's controversial commandment, "Be ye perfect, even as your father in heaven is perfect." I wanted to know how everyone else deals with this commandment, as a Christian or how you would approach a similar commandment in any other religions.
Usually, this specific commandment is either met with scoffing, or it's simply ignored. Others, under the Lutheran influence, have claimed that Christ gave this commandment merely to underscore that we could never acheive it. However, this makes no sense to me. I've taken a stab at the concept of perfection in my thesis and I'll post my theory on it, but first I wanted to see what a couple of you have to say about.
Is it impossible? If so why did Christ tell us to do it in the first place?
Dee
I'll let you into a little secret (well, not so much a secret as a confession). Having suffered from various compulsions and obsessions, I ought to be the one nearest perfection (in
all walks of life).
Of course, that is impossible. Which is a contributary factor as to why I am, and have been depressed most of my life.
I haven't the ability to accept anything that I create without being disatisfied with it, to the point that this obsession pervades every side of my life.
Take this computer, for example; I dread to think how many times I have had to re-instal it. Why ? because I am always trying out tweaks, I will never be satisfied with less than 'perfect'; which, of course, some level of me knows is absurd and unnatainable.
In my career in the Bank, I had to write in hand written great big bound ledgers (to do with legalities, mortgages and the like) - most of it concerning property; it was important to get it right.
The trouble was, that not only did I make myself get it right, but it had to look right. I had black, red and green fountain pens. All underlines had to be done with a ruler. If I was half way through a page and I made a mistake, that was it. Tear the sheet up and start again.
I served as a teller once in a small village branch (where there had only ever been one teller. I made damned sure I could cope on my own.
Whenever I went on holiday, two tellers took my place (and I promise this is true); when I did 'crack up', two became permanent, with a third for the busy beginning and end of weeks.
But all that is slightly off topic (although I am the same in Religion). I walk through woods saying prayers. If I realise that I have lost concentration for a second, I have to start the prayer again (obviously this applies to the Lord's prayer and others that I use on a daily basis).
As far as
I wanted to know how everyone else deals with this commandment, as a Christian or how you would approach a similar commandment in any other religions.
I guess the short answer is:- Badly.
The longer answer is that we must do our best to aim high; the higher the aim, the higher you will hit the board (with luck). being a 'weird' Christian who believes in Reincarnation, I believe that that is where this commandment comes into play. It is only after many many lives (however many it takes) that one achieves 'God-hood' or as near to that as is possible given our handicap of being born as human beings.
I have often thought, with great sadness that prfection
has to be the aim, and the falling very short of it is a burden I sometimes feel is one too great to bear.