Perfection (or a lack thereof)

First of all let me say that no one is perfect, least of all me. As I grow older I become more comfortable with my weaknesses and accepting of the fact that I do fail, I do make mistakes, I am not perfect.

Now before you throw a mental wrench in your mind, let me say that I still do work on them, I do desire to overcome them, it's just that I'm okay with not being perfect.

Only Jesus was perfect. Only Jesus is perfect.

It's rare to find someone who comes close to being perfect (for those of you who think you are - that's a sure sign that you are not).

A few weeks ago, Mark Buerhle, the White Sox pitcher, threw a perfect game. My friend, Mickey Insalaco was there. I was happy that he was there, but jealous at the same time - but that's another story, a great illustration of jealousy.

That game moved the White Sox into a tie for first place (they have since fallen back into second place).

Please understand how rare a perfect game is in baseball.

For those of you who are not familiar with a "perfect game" in baseball, that means that a pitcher not only must prevent all 27 hitters from getting a hit, he also cannot allow a single walk, and his team cannot commit any errors!

And here's the deal - despite the thousands of Major League baseball games played every year and the tens of thousands of games that have been played over the history of baseball (the Major Leagues began in 1871), Mark Buerhle's perfect game was only the 18th ever pitched.

And Buerhle didn't stop there. His very next start he pitched another perfect game for the first five and two thirds innings. He set the record for consecutive batters retired over a several-game stretch—45 batters up and down—but then, as it inevitably does, human imperfection came into play.

In the sixth inning, with two outs, Buerhle walked a batter. Hits followed. He got out of that inning, but in the seventh he gave up more hits and was pulled from the game. He had given up five runs on five hits, and the White Sox lost the game 5 to 3.

Here's the deal. We may have a season where we do really well in our walk with God and with others. But inevitably, we will fail. We are human beings. We are not infallible. We are not perfect.

And maybe, just maybe, as we shouldn't be so hard on ourselves, we shouldn't be hard on others.

I am going to let you down. You are going to let me down. And when those moments come, let's show each other grace and love and continue to go on - hand in hand.

Just a thought.