a moment with a perfectionist friend.

I recently was talking with a friend who may or may not remind you of one of yours.

This guy is brilliant, hardworking, a great father and a loving husband, but he's also one of the greatest perfectionist I've ever met.

Like annoyingly perfectionist. Like he's got his budget tight, his debt responsible, he beard trimmed and his car vacuumed.

You know the type I'm talking about.

For all intensive purposes I'm jealous of how well he's got his life together.

But while hanging out recently he shared how his perfectionism is also a curse.

He said at any moment, for almost any subject, there's a voice whispering in his ear, like a devil on his shoulder, pointing out all his faults,

all the ways he might have screwed up,

might have crossed a line,

might have intentionally sinned or

intentionally did something that might hurt someone or

be seen as bad or

that might prove he's actually a horrible person and the entire world is gonna find out at any moment.

As he shared this my heart broke for him.

I told him therapist are amazing and he might need to check one out, and that I've loved mine.

But then the conversation turned to the role of the accuser on our shoulder, the one who's whispering the shame in our ear.

And these whispers come whether we're a perfectionist or not.

We all know that voice. The voice that reminds us of that moment we...

Said that,
Looked there,
Reacted that way,
Intentionally didn't do,
Intentionally did do.

The accuser doesn't care really what it is we did or didn't do, he simply hates us, well, not really us, he hates Jesus and which means he hates everything Jesus loves, which means he hates us, cause Jesus loves us.

Jesus loves us like crazy, so the accuser, he hates us like crazy.

So in that hate, he'll take every action we've done or not done and twist it and taint it and turn it so that it becomes a dagger for our heart, our confidence, our peace, our joy.

His hate is creative and vindictive and exhausting.

But here's what shuts up the accuser.

IT DOESN'T MATTER HOW ACCURATE THE ACCUSATIONS ARE, GRACE FORGIVES US. 

Think about that. Let that sink in.

It honestly doesn't matter if what the accuser is whispering is true or false, it doesn't matter if you're really a terrible person or not, or if you did that "thing" on purpose or not, or whether you're a good person or bad, the point of Jesus, his grace, his love, is to say we're loved period, chosen period, redeemed period and his love SHUTS THE ACCUSER UP!

So the next time the whispers come and shame seeps in, and the accuser is casting his accusations, tell him to shut up, cause grace forgives, grace covers, and it doesn't matter if you are or aren't what he's throwing in your face.

Grace wins, you're loved, and Jesus said you're enough for him, whether your life appears perfect or whether your life is a perfect mess.