Don’t let an unrealistic expectation of perfection keep you from doing the things that are most good for your soul and most glorifying to God. Pick up your Bible, pray, evangelize, encourage the church, and follow God wherever He leads. If it’s worth doing, be willing to put in the awkward reps of early attempts. Do it badly, and pray for God to help you do it well.
You’ve probably heard it said, “Anything worth doing, is worth doing well.” Generally, I agree with that statement. If a thing is worth giving our time for, we should strive to do it with excellence. That’s biblical: “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ” (Col 3:23-24). As Christians we should be those who work most excellently, because we are serving a better, more worthy, Master. And yet, I’m afraid this ideal of excellence often causes well meaning Christians to stop “doing” altogether. They turn the adage into, “If it can’t be done well, don’t do it at all.” And that is unbiblical. I’ll explain.
There are so many areas in our life where we are commanded to do something by God. We are commanded to read our Bibles, pray, evangelize, encourage one another, etc… and very often, our efforts at obedience are embarrassing at first. We struggle with consistency in our Bible reading time. “Sweet hour of prayer” often looks more like “Sweet 5 minutes of prayer before my mind wanders to a dog on the street.” We bumble through evangelism and encouragement like a four-year-old trying to explain how a microwave works. To say it bluntly, we do not do it well.
And yet, I am convinced these things are worth doing.
- “How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word” (Psalm 119:9). Oh how good of an endeavor it is to know and read God’s word. Through it we know God, His commands, our purpose, and most importantly His Son.
- “You do not have, because you do not ask” (James 4:2). To pray is to speak with the Almighty. I know Him through His word, and I speak to Him through prayer. I worship Him and draw down power from on high as I lift my voice to Him.
- “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season” (2 Tim 4:2).
