"When I try to recall the girl I was decades ago, at my high school graduation, I seem to have as much in common with her as I do with any stranger I might pass in the doorway of a Starbucks or in the aisle of an airplane. I cannot remember what she wore, or how she felt, or what she said, or ate, or read. But I can tell you this about her without question:She was perfect."~Anna Quindlen

Perfection. Ann Quindlen in this tiny little book simply called Being Perfect, describes the years she spent walking around with what she called a backpack of bricks as she did everything 'perfectly'. From schoolwork to relationships, from leisure to fashion, she sought to present to the world her 'perfect' self. She carried it into her adulthood and parenthood, trying to be the perfect daughter, the perfect mother, the perfect employee, the prefect writer.

And then she wised up.Through trials and life lessons she learned the danger and the pitfalls of the pursuit of perfection. If you have read any of her novels or nonfiction you know her gift for portraying less that perfect people……people like you and me. 

I have to admit as I read her little book I saw myself splattered on that ink and paper. I, too, spent many hours, days, and years in the pursuit of the elusive….perfect daughter, perfect student, perfect mother, perfect…..whatever. It's exhausting work and thankless and completely impossible.

In the United Methodist Church we have a saying: "We are going on to perfection." a phrase coined by our founder John Wesley. In some ways it is a poor choice of words. But when he made this statement 'perfection' may have had a different meaning that the white-knuckled endeavor of modern day. He really meant something more similar to 'wholeness'.

Wholeness…..now there's something I can buy into. Each of us is going on to wholeness, I believe. It is life-long work. From our birth we are, with some hope, welcomed into a world that offers us gifts and challenges, opportunities for growth, experiences of transformation and transcendence, traveling companions who love us and guide us. All these combine to lead us along a path toward wholeness, an experience of the fullness of our humanity,our true selves.

I think it is not coincidence that 'wholeness' and 'holy' sound so much alike. For it is in the pursuit of our true, human selves, that we come most often to know the Holy. With all our warts and wounds, all our brokenness and beauty, we come to stand face-to-face with the One who has held us from the beginning and will greet us a life's end. And in that moment we are not perfect but we are whole and holy.