Mr. (Im)perfect

“But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” Romans 3:21-24

Like many people, I commute to work every day. Unlike most people, my commute is 65 miles one way. I’ve been doing this since June 2002, and by best guess I’ve made the round trip just over 2,000 times. That means that my commute has consisted of over 260,000 miles over the last nine plus years. And my track record is almost perfect- I’ve never had a ticket of any kind and have never even been pulled over by the police. I consider myself to be a very conscientious and safe driver. Almost perfect.

On February 8, 2005, I was involved in a single car accident on my way to work. My driving perfection was no more. And the aftermath was interesting to watch. My family became more apprehensive when I drove to work in bad weather and people at church put me in their prayers (some to this day). I can admit that it changed my approach to driving in bad weather. The focus was on the one instance where I missed the mark. Despite a 99.975% success rate in getting back and forth to work, and the fact that I had driven 99.99992% of the total mileage without incident, people focused on the one time I missed the mark.

The accident was traumatizing. It would have been real easy to never drive again, fearful that the same thing was just around the corner for me. I was out of work for a month, and the medical bills (even with insurance) and cost of replacing the car put us in a bind financially. It created a lot of stress and anxiety for my family and friends, as they saw me in pain and completely vulnerable for the first week or two of my recovery. There are members of my church that continue to pray daily for my safe passage back and forth, almost seven years later. All of this because I missed the mark one time.

Instead of throwing in the towel, I dusted myself off and went about the task of starting a new perfect streak. While everyone else focused on the one negative trip, I recognized it for the blip on the radar that it truly was.

In our spiritual lives, sin is nothing more than missing the mark. We can discuss for days what actions actually constitute sin, but in the end it is anything that makes us fall short of the life Jesus taught us to lead. Any time we stumble in our faith, we miss the mark. If we miss the mark in any way, our perfect streak ends. The reality is that any “perfect streak” we have spiritually is going to be measured in seconds or minutes or hours (at best). I say this because we miss the mark on a very regular basis. To hit the 99.975% mark that I have driving back and forth to work, I would only sin 21.6 seconds of every day. I’m pretty sure I used that allotment before I was fully dressed this morning. So, no matter how hard I try, I’ll never come close to the level of near-perfection that I task myself with. I will spend a lifetime restarting my streak, over and over again.

Just like the reaction of my family and friends had when I rolled my car, each time I miss the mark will have an impact on those I love the most. It does not matter if they are present or not, or if they are directly impacted by whatever sin I commit. In the end, my actions have a direct bearing on the lives of those I love most. I can think that I am hiding it from the world. I can believe that nobody knows my deepest, darkest secrets. I can justify my actions my actions and words by thinking that I don’t care how others perceive me. I would be wrong on every count. Every thought I make, every action I take, every word I speak defines who I am as a person, parent, spouse and friend. People’s ability to trust and love will be based on the opinion they form about me. If I do something serious enough (like rolling a car over on the side of the highway), they are going to worry that I may not be able to fully recover from my transgressions. They will never look at me the same ever again.

This being the case, I always have to put my best foot forward and let people know that while I make mistakes and miss the mark, I am trying to become a better person all the time. I am trying to become a little more like Jesus every day. I vow to avoid missing the mark wherever possible. I make it a point to pick myself up, dust off and move forward. We all miss the mark. It is how we deal with it that determines if we grow closer to God.