Less than perfect

Sometimes you get just one shot at something. Maybe sometimes you hit the bulls-eye and maybe sometimes you miss the target altogether. But what about those in-between times? I think sometimes the "almost there, but not quite" situations present their own challenges. I think what makes it harder, or at least a different kind of hard, is the fact that "what almost was" is flashed in your face. If only that one tiny detail was different, it would have been "perfect." I know at least for me, it can be a challenge to accept those kinds of mixed results graciously.

Maybe you're wondering what got me thinking about this... Well, there's this picture. We were driving through the market on the way home from worship one Sunday, and I was sitting in the back with my camera. I usually don't even have my camera out in "people situations" here... I may write about my reasons for that some other time. But this time, I did take my camera out. But I didn't put it up to my eye. I just looked around, and when I saw a scene that was especially compelling, I "shot from the hip" so to speak. This attracts MUCH less attention, so that most people don't even realize I'm taking pictures - which in this situation was a good thing. Unfortunately, it also means that I can't see what the frame looks like and am shooting mostly blind.

So what happens when your options are limited and you're forced to shoot from the hip? When you try something new and it doesn't quite work? When you see the potential for this great shot of a Maasai lady framed by the doorway of a shop she's leaving, and you end up squeezing off the shutter a little too far to the left? Do I chafe and whine about what could have been... "if only," or do I accept the fact that these were not the best of circumstances and be glad I at least got a shot, albeit imperfect? When I'm trying my best, do I beat myself up for not making the bulls-eye every time, or do I patiently go back for more practice?

Too often I am tempted to despair when my aim isn't as true as it should be. When I mess up. But am I going to stop taking pictures just because I'm not perfect at it? No. Will I give up cooking just because that one recipe didn't work out? No. And will I abandon the Faith just because of a rough day, or my own falterings? Absolutely not.

Sometimes it's frustrating when we can't seem to get things just right. You feel as if you're doing so well, and then another temptation, another stumblingblock, another challenge is set in front of you. Perfection always seems just out of reach.

We are all less than perfect.

But that doesn't mean that we stop trying. Instead of dwelling on what might have been, let's always keep a positive attitude and look toward what can still be!

Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect: but I press on, if so be that I may lay hold on that for which also I was laid hold on by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself yet to have laid hold: but one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.  -Philippians 3:12-14