For When Holiness Feels Like a Heavy Weight
A Centering Prayer Inspired by Philippians 3:4b-14
"Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5:48)—these words used to crush me until I understood their context. Jesus says this right after teaching us to love our enemies, suggesting that God's "perfection" is about complete, all-encompassing love that excludes no one. As a pastor, I carried it like a burden, thinking holiness meant flawless religious performance.
But I've learned something vital: the word Jesus used for "perfect" (teleios) actually means "complete," "mature," "whole"—it's about being fully who we're created to be. God's perfection isn't about flawlessness; it's about complete, self-giving love. When Jesus tells us to be perfect like God, he's inviting us into that same kind of love—whole-hearted, holding nothing back, embracing both the power of resurrection and the vulnerability of surrender.
Like Paul, I'm learning to count all my religious achievements as loss compared to knowing Christ in this way. True holiness isn't about being flawless—it's about being transformed by love, for love. It's about letting our broken parts be gathered up and made whole in Love's refining fire.
For When Holiness Feels Like a Heavy Weight
A Centering Prayer Inspired by Philippians 3:4b-14
Sacred One Who Makes Us Whole,
I carried it too long—
That crushing need to be perfect,
That exhausting drive to be holy,
All my religious trophies
Piled high like precious gold,
Now seen for what they are:
Empty attempts at earning
What love already gives.
Help me trust this deeper truth:
That holiness is not perfection,
But love being love;
That wholeness comes
not through striving,
But through breaking open to grace;
That knowing you means knowing all—
Your rising and your giving,
Your power and your surrender,
Your dying into love.
Let me lean more into love,
Step by gentle step,
As your refiner's fire
Transforms my broken parts
Into reflection of your heart.
Until everything else feels worthless
Compared to knowing you fully,
Until holiness looks just like love,
Until love looks just like you.
Amen.
