My mom had one of those mom sayings – “There’s no ‘should’ about it.” As a kid, I would kind of roll my eyes (well, I probably really did roll my eyes – sorry, Mom) when she said that and get on with whatever it was I was talking about. I mean, everyone knows there are things you should do.
But I didn’t realize there’s an invisible transaction that takes place every time you accept a ‘should.’ Each one becomes another item on the list of requirements for perfection, and no matter how many of them you get right, there’s always another ‘should’ waiting just around the corner.
Perfection is an ever-heavier burden that you cannot bear. It’s not possible for you to be perfect, and if you agree with the liar that you’re supposed to be, that people expect you to be, it will eventually crush you. It will immobilize you. Stop you in your tracks. How many things have you left untried or unfinished because fear stopped you? Fear that you would look foolish and people might laugh, or fear you wouldn’t do it right and others would think you were a failure. We keep carting around all that unfinished business, and it drags us down, holds us back, so we never make any progress.
Did you know there are over 600 commands in the Mosaic law? That’s because holiness requires perfection. But all those commands make it clear that holiness is impossible without God. We’re never going to get there on our own. Those who try get worn out and burned out on religion. What we need is a Savior, and He is Jesus Christ, the only perfect human who ever walked this earth.
Our imperfection is actually a good thing, because Jesus is the only One who can bring us into the Father’s presence (John 14:6). And He said very clearly that the people He was escorting were “not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners and need to repent” (Luke 5:32). In other words, imperfect people who get it that the requirements of perfection are impossible for them to meet and who are looking for a way out.
God’s sure and undeserved favor and kindness is the only way out from under that burden (Ephesians 2:8). When we rely on God’s grace rather than our own perfection, we get to drop the millstone of perfection and take up the silken mantle of grace.
“My yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” Matthew 11:30