Perfection is a prison. We start out laboring to achieve it, but end up in bondage. The perfection we seek is an illusion. But when the true perfect comes, the partial things will fade away. I have strived for perfection my whole life. I know personally how much of a prison this pursuit can become. Unfortunately, I’ve also expected the same of my wife and kids. In doing so, I inevitably set them up for failure, because perfection is an unattainable goal. Instead of doing good, this expectation ends up hurting my relationship with them. I’m grateful to the Lord that He has helped them mostly recover from my mistakes.

We’ve been told that most communication is nonverbal. Yet our primary means of connection, email and text message, eliminate that element altogether (with the exception of emojis). The consequences of this contradiction can be found on any newsstand. If we’re this bad at it, we should ask ourselves, “How good is God at communicating?”

One day as a kid, my mom came home proudly toting a newly purchased board game. Already an avid competitor in the auspicious realms of “Chutes and Ladders,” “Trouble” and “Candyland” respectively, my will to win surged at the mere sight of the Toys R’ Us bag.

Last fall, some friends and I attended a concert after work. One of those friends introduced me to his colleague, a Capitol Hill staffer new to the District.

Search the scriptures, and see if you can find it anywhere. You know, the “C” word. Don’t know what I’m talking about? “Christian.” People use the word often, seldom considering its many meanings. As we talk with others, we find a multitude of definitions.

College entrance essays ask which historical figures you would like to meet. Magazine reporters ask which three people you’d like to have for dinner. And myspace.com has a listing for each profile, “Who I’d like to meet.” It should be “Whom”.

The wife of a rural pastor would seem to have little reason for smiling. She and her husband lost their oldest son when he was nine. They are poor and have no visible hope of ever moving out of poverty. The needs of their church and community demand their time, their energy, their resources.

Teacher. Rabbi. Messiah. King. Savior. Redeemer. Friend. Christ. Servant. Son. Prophet. Man. God. Rebel. Revolutionary. Priest. Intercessor.

The roles of Jesus. All true.

People try to escape Jesus for as long as they can. We can ignore him, and we do. We develop systems financially, socially, physically and especially pseudo-spiritually to get away from needing or heeding him. Loving us, he’s jealous; but loving us, he doesn’t force us to reciprocate.

A few things to keep in mind: 1) we don’t understand what Jesus is doing, 2) but we think we do; 3) he knows what he’s doing, and 4) he’ll accomplish his father’s purposes despite us.

It looks so obvious in retrospect. He sent us pictures all along. The pictures showed us what he looked like. That way we might recognize him when we met him.

I heard this in a class once. Researchers showed a battery of images to individuals who had one eye covered. The covering of a certain eye interacts with the memory. If the individual knew a word for an object flashed before his eyes, he could remember it. If he didn’t have a word for the object, he didn’t remember it.

Is Jesus enough? Is he enough to bring us together? If you’re Protestant and I’m Catholic? Or if I’m Tutsi and you’re Hutu? Perhaps we’re both conservatives? Is he enough to bring us together without making us copies of one another?

God spoke. He said, “Let there be light,” and light appeared. He said, “Let us make man,” and man was created.