Welcome to Planet Perfect!
You haven’t been there before? Well it’s a great place, let me tell you. The temperature is always a soothing 77 degrees. The beaches have no jelly-fish. The water is always crisp and clear. The people are always beautiful and smiling. If you listen closely when you walk by them you can hear the “bling” sound from their smiling teeth.
The clothes that people wear is always pressed and perfectly clean. It makes you wonder how they always get those wrinkles out, especially around the arms of the shirts, which can sometimes be tricky.
But what you’d really be impressed with are the people themselves. They always say stuff like “hallelujah,” and “praise the Lord.” I mean all the time. Even when things are going really rough in their lives. They never utter anything else. Like robots. Kind of makes you want to look for the outline of wires and screws in the parts of their hair. Just suspiciously mechanical.
It seems that these people on Planet Perfect were convinced that good Christians can never express anything but praise. They can’t express frustration. They aren’t allowed to ever doubt, anything. They can’t say things like, “I wonder why this happened in my life?”
And when they log onto Facebook or Twitter they only put stuff like “at my desk.” Or “working.” Or “just finished visiting someone at the hospital.” And when you’re with them in person they’re always quoting Scripture and life is ever sunny. It’s really quite impressive, but rather disappointing.
You see, because outside of Planet Perfect there are real people. With flesh. With frustrations. With questions. And they share them. And they’re not afraid to let people in and see that they are humans, too.
I think people enjoy living on Planet Perfect because they think that if anyone knew anything deeper about their lives, they would write them off as a leader. They would stop following. And then they would cease to be a Perfect Leader.
Well guess what? It’s a myth.
I recently hung out with some leaders like this. That shared from their hearts about things in their lives. Some deep things. And guess what happened? Did I write them off? Nope. It made me respect them more. It made me love them more. It made me more willing to be a part of their lives. Some don’t understand that “transparency corresponds to trust.” Too much transparency just corresponds to weirdness, though, so be careful. Just saying.
I heard there’s a rocket that leaves everyday at 3pm, and shuttles people from Planet Perfect to Planet Earth. If you’ve never been to the big green planet, I encourage you to come over. The temperature fluctuates a little more than at Planet Perfect, but I think you’ll find that it’s a really special place.
And one more thing: bring your flip-flops.
[image by Blyzz]
Hey Rodlie, I think it's altogether too true about people trying to act as if they have no problems at all to the point that they can't relate to the people on "Planet Earth." The sad thing is that too many times we never go where Jesus went, lived, bled, and died. And because of that we lose the perception necessary for the salvation of others, and, sadly, sometimes our own as well. It's interesting because just recently I heard someone commenting to someone else about why they seem to be "problem-free" all the time. The comment was that "with God, you have no problems." My initial reaction was … ?! The key, however, is to have the proper perspective and balance when it comes to facing problems in this world and yet keeping our citizenship in the next. First, in order for us to be part of the next world, we must recognize that we have problems and need help. This is the ultimate key and condition to solutions. Without this step, we are deceiving ourselves. Secondly, we should always balance those earthly realities with heavenly realities. What are those? That Jesus loves you, that He died for you, and that He ever lives to intercede for you. All these things result in a wonderful plan that makes "all things" work together for good. So should we complain? Not at all! Do we? Very definitely, and I'm perhaps many times guilty of it. Sometimes we think too much of the earthly that we forget the heavenly realities. And sometimes we think that in order to keep in mind heavenly realities we need to forget we're human. Anyway, what do you all think?
Yes, very well said. I think you're right. There must be a balance. The issue that I was addressing is that some of these leaders and people pretend like "plastic people" that they never have any issues or are ever frustrated or having a tough time with something. JEsus wept. Paul shared his frustrations. Who are we, then, to be any different and to pretend that we also do not weep at times. I'm trying to challenge people through this post to be sincere and authentic. thx for the comment and for joining the conversation on the blog. Please keep them coming!