Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Is Perfectionism Sin?


“You have perfectionist tendencies," I read. Ding-ding-ding! Yessir. On some days, that factual statement might even elicit a smile.

How blasé the personality analysts can make sin sound—how perfectly normative. No worse than a penchant for nuts on your ice-cream or preferring warm weather over cold. To psychologist gurus, it’s mere biological makeup.

Anyway, it’s hard to be ashamed of belonging to a select group of isms that can boast the word “perfection” in its name. Of course we know that perfectionism can be taken to unhealthy extremes, but I wouldn’t exactly call it an embarrassing weakness to confess.

And why should it be? I’m hardly going to be ostracized by the Christian community. Some people will even think that I’m a humble dear for seeing it as a struggle at all; put it up against sins with nasty names like “fornication” and “greed”, and my sweet little perfectionism sounds like the mild weakness of a pious saint.

I would be remiss, of course, not to note: this is exactly how we perfectionists like it.

You know about the associations as well as I do. If you’re aware that you’re a perfectionist, you’re also aware that you belong to a class containing some fairly impressive world-shapers. You know that you’re:

· Highly excellence-driven in at least one area.

· Often quick to notice your own faults. You take them seriously, and you set about at correcting them in short order.

· You like things done well, and you like to do them well. Sloppiness and shoddy work revolt against your very nature.

Not bad things, all. Oh, sure, we may be a little extreme sometimes, but all in all— if we temper our perfectionism with moderation, who cares?

Perhaps… God does.

What if the motives behind our so-called “perfectionism” are sinful, not praiseworthy—even if our obsession isn’t at the level people typically call extreme? What if this half-way flattering jargon about being “driven” simply describes what is visible, while missing the propelling sins of cowardice, obsession with control, and self-absorption?

If that's the case-- and we'll look into each of those points in a following post-- then I don’t want to be caught smiling when the perfectionist in me wakes up again.