You Were Not Meant To Be Imperfect

I've been learning a lot about perfection lately. And by "learning a lot about perfection", I mean that I've been learning that I definitely don't possess it.

It was especially apparent this week when I was practicing my scales and arpeggios on the piano. I had been practicing the same scale over and over, but I just wasn't able to keep my hands going at the same pace without missing a note.

10 times. My left hand was still behind. 30 times. My right didn't play the correct fingering. 45 times. My fingers slipped and played the wrong notes.

I may or may not have started to question Bach's motivation for composing Invention no. 4 in D minor.

Then I started to wonder...why does it upset me so much when I can't play a perfect scale and accompanying arpeggio?

Before I answer that question, I want to share another parallel lesson that I learned about perfection, but this was in Spanish class. In Spanish, there is a verb tense called the imperfect. Here's an example:

Veníamos para casa cuando vimos Juan. 

(We were coming home when we saw John.)

The imperfect is used when describing events in the past that have not been completed yet (We were coming home...). In Spanish, to be imperfect means to not be complete. It's funny how a big truth can be hidden in the tedious grammar of a foreign language. 

Imperfect things are things that have not been completed. 

I am imperfect. I have not been completed - yet.  

So why does it upset me so much when I can't play a perfect scale and accompanying arpeggio? Because scales and arpeggios were created to be perfect.  

The fact that it bothers us that we aren't perfect indicates that we were meant to be perfect. There is a mysterious standard ingrained into the human heart that tells us that perfection is what we ought to strive for, even though we cannot achieve it.

Not only that, though, but something as intricate and complex as Bach's Invention no. 4 in D minor was created to be perfect. It didn't suddenly appear one day without a composer. No, it was thought out and created from an intelligent mind. 

If we hear something as beautiful as a line of music and automatically assume that it had a composer, why do we not also assume that we have a Creator? We who are infinitely more complex, intricate, and unique. 

Perfect: adj. having all the required or desirable elements, qualities, or characteristics; as good as it is possible to be. 

I've got news for you. You are imperfect. You have not been completed yet. But, the Author of your life melody created you to be perfect, and one day you can be complete - if you will recognize your need for Someone other than yourself to achieve perfection. You cannot reach it by yourself, no matter how hard you try. Don't be discouraged, though, or afraid of your imperfection, for it can lead you to recognize your need for the Perfect One. If you're reading this and feel that you are desperately imperfect, and that you would like to be perfect one day, I'd love to talk more with you about this! 

Why does it upset us so much that we can't achieve perfection? 

Because we were created to be perfect.