Are You Ready?59routine in line with their deepest values. Pursuing God, liv-
ing intentionally, and taking care of our health are all deeply
important to us, and we don’t want to fall short. But if our
goal is perfection, we are setting ourselves up for discourage-
ment and even failure.
The pursuit of perfection is often the very thing that keeps
us from progress. By focusing on all- or- nothing success, any-
thing short of perfection is considered failure. And with each
perceived failure, perseverance becomes more difficult. Perfect
is a mirage that is always just out of reach, leaving us more
desperate than when we started.
So what can we focus on instead of perfection?
You’ll find few examples in Scripture of anyone waiting
until they were perfect to act. In fact, most moved before they
felt ready— before things seemed to make sense. They stepped
out in faith. My challenge to you is to step out in faith too.
Believe that God can handle your baby steps. That He can
turn your fish and loaves into something so much greater than
you could ever dream up on your own.
God doesn’t need our perfect. He already is perfect. He
just wants our yes. He just wants us to step out in faith to fol-
low Him even if what we are doing looks pathetic, as it did for
David when he fought a giant while armed with only a small
stone (1 Sam. 17), or ridiculous, as it did to the Israelites march-
ing around Jericho (Josh. 6), or scary, as it did to Esther (Est. 4).
Our step of faith may be small, but God says He can move
mountains with faith the size of a mustard seed.
The key here is grace. Grace for mistakes. Grace for fail-
ure. Grace for days when we just don’t want to get out of bed.
It’s easy when building a habit to think we need willpower.