Our Influence Comes Through Our Imperfections, Not In Spite Of Them

​One of the main reasons I gravitate towards and embrace the Christian story is because all of the characters in the story - save one - are imperfect.

Many of them quite imperfect.

Like me.

There are days I can get to wondering, what on earth use can I possibly be with all of my imperfect baggage.

In the bible there is a story about a guy named Peter. He once pulled Jesus aside and read him the riot act for telling people he was going to die and then raise from the dead in three days.

Easter.

It's ironic, isn't it, the imperfect one scolding the only perfect one to ever live for sharing his Easter plan, the only plan ever devised to fully and totally redeem the imperfect one's imperfections.

And mine.

I am reminded in this Easter season, in the midst of beating myself up for my imperfections - in the midst of too frequently doubling down on my chase to become more perfect - that the Christian story isn't a Christian story at all without our imperfections.

I don't say that as justification - as motivation - to rest easy in my imperfections, but rather I say it as a reminder to rest easy in the arms of the one who once and for all made my imperfections a reason for love, and not a reason to bail on love.

The way of the world quite often IS to bail on one another in response to each other's imperfections. But in this Christian story, this man named Jesus, the perfect one, decided our shared imperfections were the perfect reason to be murdered on a cross on the way to pouring his loving blood into our imperfections.

Not to scold us - but to invite us.

We often make each other's imperfections a reason to hide. But Jesus longs for our imperfections to be the reason we come out of hiding.

Peter went on to have quite the influence on the early church, an influence that carries on to this day.

An influence not built on him finally reaching perfection, but an influence built on him finally believing in the story he once scolded the perfect one for even telling.

A story meant to help me realize that I too can have influence. Not in spite of my imperfections, but through them.