Perhaps you’ve heard it said: “don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.”  Relentless pursuit of perfection can divert our attention from more realistic options to produce something, not-quite-perfect, but good enough.

Imagine the orchestral composer who struggles for years, writing and re-writing a symphony that never is completed because the composer won’t be satisfied until she produces the perfect symphony. So, the world never hears a beautiful, but not perfect symphony and the composer never has the opportunity to share her artistic vision. 

Tragic.  And nuts.  And oh, so human.

It’s not always clear how good “good enough” has to be.  We could debate it.  If you’re baking bread, maybe the floor of “good enough” is that the bread is not harmful to consume.  Bread that has raised adequately and is baked until done is closer to “good enough” to me.  A picture-perfect golden crust and uniform texture might be a standard of performance that will strip bread-making of its joy. 

But maybe “good enough” operates on a sliding scale.  If you aspire to neurosurgery, the standards of “good enough” are considerably more demanding than the standards for “good enough” bread making.

Wanting to do one’s very best is not a bad thing.  But if the measure of “good enough” is perfection, then you’re asking for trouble.  Because perfect isn’t available. 

Humility demands that we accept our best is not perfect.  Even the best effort of the best practitioner is not perfect.

Perfect belongs only to God.  Whenever a synagogue is constructed, an intentional flaw is built into the building as a concrete reminder that all human efforts fall short of perfect.

Learning that we are not God and that perfection will always elude us creates an opening for grace to sneak in.

When we accept that our best is still incomplete and imperfect, we can accept God’s acceptance of us and receive God’s grace with humble thanks. 

But first we have to relinquish any claims to being God ourselves.

Prayer:  Lord, I know practice is not going to make perfect. All I ask is that you make me good enough.