Letting Go of Perfection: How a Simple Interruption Can Lead to Spiritual Growth
No one is perfect, but we can strive for perfect intention.
During my morning meditation, my senior dog began whining as she sat on my bed. I knew exactly what she wanted—water—but I still had 7 minutes left in my meditation. Then I realized, it’s going to take just a few seconds to give her what she wanted. So I put her water bowl in front of her for her to drink.
I then sat back down and continued my seated meditation. Just a minute or two later she began to whine again. I told her “Shhh,” but I also meant “Shh” to my chattering mind. I began working in my mind this blog post. So much for 20 minutes of quiet.
What was it that distracted me? Was it the devil or just…life? My dog was thirsty. Who was I to put my desire for a perfect 20 minutes of silence before her needs? My desire for perfection is the devil’s hand.
Although the parable of the Good Samaritan is often cited as the anonymous person who comes out of nowhere to help those in need, many people miss the true issue at hand. Jesus had been talking to the “experts of the law” about how to love one another. It’s about the desire for outer perfection rather than perfect intention.
What was it that distracted me? Was it the devil or just…life?
Two people passed the man on the road to Jericho—a priest and a Levite. Both had done their work of cleansing according to the law so they could go to the temple. They couldn’t touch anything or anyone unclean, so they “passed by on the other side.” Like my desire to have a perfect 20 minutes of silence, they ignored the immediate needs of their neighbor. It was much more important to go to the temple fully clean rather than serve God in the moment.
The man wasn’t a tool of the devil to tempt the priest and the Levite away from their cleanliness. Similarly, my senior dog wasn’t used by the devil to lure me away from my 20 minutes. Instead, it’s a continual reminder that perfection isn’t about following outer rules about cleanliness or even the “proper” way to meditate. It’s about responding to the needs of the moment with a perfect, clean heart.
Going to temple or sitting in meditation are both about practice. The cleansing methods or outward gestures are not so that we can pat ourselves on the back for following the rules or checking off God’s list of requirements for purification and perfection. Instead, they remind us that we have work to do on ourselves—that work of continually peeling away those layers of the false self.
In other words, if we’re only performing these rituals so we can earn a 30-day meditation badge, we’re still clinging to approval or outer perfection, even if we’re the only ones who are keeping score. That’s where the devil of pride gets in a good dig into our prayer life.
We can pray every moment. Rather than go to a physical temple, we can go to the temple within, which doesn’t require cleansing rituals. We go to this inner temple with perfect intention—to know and love God. When the outer world interrupts our time in our inner temple, we look for the opportunity to serve God.
If you can’t sit for 20 minutes in meditation, you can at least say to God, “I’m doing my best, and I’m at least here.” You’ll have moments of distraction. You’ll have moments where you’re tempted to do something more exciting. You’ll definitely have moments of boredom. But you still sit.
But what’s also important is for you to let go of the need for it to be perfect. Some days it will feel perfect, and those 20 minutes fly by. That might be perfect, but you can’t become too attached to those brief moments of perfection. The minute you become too confident in your answers is the minute God sends you a new contradiction. God will always keep you on your toes so you don’t become too complacent and you’re always growing.
And sometimes God will remind you of your attachment to perfection by having you encounter an unexpected need of another. You don’t walk by on the other side of the road. You don’t put on your noise-canceling headphones so you can ignore the whining. You address the needs of others in that moment, then you continue along whatever road God leads you.