“Be ye therefore perfect,” taught Jesus (Matthew 5:48), as if Christianity’s Great Exemplar himself was demonstrating how to write an unachievable New Year’s resolution.
As I often do, when I encounter something in scripture that makes me twitchy, I checked that reference in Bible Hub to see if it was translated right, hoping that word, perfect, was just the King James translation being too King Jamesy again. But even the most hipster Bible translations agree with stuffy King James about Matthew 5:48. As I scrolled through the list of alternate translations in Bible Hub, I saw that anxiety-inducing word repeated over and over again: perfect, perfect, perfect.
Luckily, Book of Mormon prophet Moroni threw me a bone by tossing Jesus’s call for perfection back into Jesus’s court: “Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him. …His grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ,” said Moroni (Moroni 10:32). We cannot become perfect on our own, no matter how diligent we are at keeping our New Year’s resolutions, but our Savior completes us.
I prefer the goal to be complete over the goal of perfection. In the LDS youth program, we teach young people to set well-rounded goals, following the example of Jesus in His youth: “Jesus increased in wisdom [intellectually] and stature [physically], and in favor with God [spiritually] and man [socially].” (Luke 2:52). A holistic approach like this helps us begin the process of completing ourselves. And then we can rely on our Savior to pick up where we left off.
With other language, this approach works across faith traditions. Whatever we call the God we worship, we can leave the rest to Them. Or we can let other humans pick up some of the slack, because we don’t have to do and be everything on our own. Or we can even just let some things slide, because they were never that important anyway.
I realized how ubiquitous the tradition of writing New Year’s resolutions really is at my first job after graduating from college. I was working for the Department of Health in the smoking cessation program, and every year on New Year’s Day, we had a big spike in people calling the Tobacco Quit Line, looking for help with their goal to quit smoking. What a wonderful thing for so many people of different faiths to be united on one day of the year in resolving to better ourselves.
Another thing I learned from that job: virtually no one successfully quits smoking on their first attempt. But they absolutely must make attempts, usually several attempts, in order to quit smoking. An attempt is not a failure, it’s a necessary part of the process. The more attempts you make, the more likely you are to achieve your goal.
Over the past several weeks, I participated in a goal-setting workshop sponsored by my current employer. One of the first things they taught us was to throw out the word goal and replace it with the word experiment. We were encouraged to choose something we wanted to change—yeah, that sounds a lot like a goal—but instead of seeing it as a goal to achieve or fail we were supposed to examine the data from our attempts with the curiosity and unemotional detachment of a scientist. That was some interesting data I gathered last week! So many new data points that could be useful to explain why I don’t exercise or practice piano or eat my vegetables. How could I adjust the variables in my life to get a different outcome next week?
I don’t know if I can fully endorse that method because an impartial experiment didn’t seem quite adequate to motivate me. Even as I reject perfectionism and embrace the philosophy that a resolution is an opportunity to try something and learn from it, I also enjoy the taste of success when I actually achieve a goal. I didn’t achieve any of my goals from that workshop, but the data I gathered was enlightening and gave me crucial insights that I will apply as I plan a strategy to achieve the New Year’s resolutions I’m writing now. I hope I’m better poised for success now that I have spent some time examining what is standing in my way.
Whether or not I succeed at my resolutions, I know I’ll gain something by stretching myself, acting on the hope that something in my life could be better, and empowering myself to be the change I want to see.
Happy New Year!
5 Responses
“But they absolutely must make attempts, usually several attempts, in order to quit smoking. An attempt is not a failure, it’s a necessary part of the process. The more attempts you make, the more likely you are to achieve your goal.” I really needed to hear this. Thank you!
Regarding the phenomenon of many attempts made before actually quitting smoking, this is in contrast to Mormon teachings that if we commit a sin we had previously repented of, then the prior repentance is undone and we require at least double the repentance if we want to make things right. Could you imagine a Mormon approach to repenting for smoking? It takes on average 5-7 attempts, which would be multiplying the burden of sin by a factor of 5-7. Not sure what my point is, other than feeling appreciation for more humane belief systems.
I like “experiment” over goal!
Love your thoughts!
Also, here’s a translation you might like. Today I was reading from the book “All Things New” by Fiona and Terryl Givens. They talked about this exact scripture and said, “In the simplest restatement of the Original Plan conceived in premortal councils, Jesus summarized the purpose and end and final result of the entire cosmic project – to be whole, fully realized beings. ‘Be ye perfect’ is a common translation, but we prefer that of the translator Kevin Wuest, which is closer to the reading of the Greek text: ‘Therefore, as for you, you shall be those who are complete in your character, even as your Father in heaven is complete in his being’ (Matt. 5:48). We note two distinctive surprises in Wuest’s rendering. First, he translates the verb as a simple, comforting future tense, not an intimidating command form: you will (in the future) be. Second, Wuest renders the Greek teleios as ‘complete.’ Teleios, completeness, takes us even closer to that original scene in premortal realms, that commencement of each individual saga, when Heavenly Parents proposed giving us the ‘privilege to advance like [Themselves] and be exalted with [Them]. A telos is an envisioned end, finality, or completion of an intention or process. Teleios therefore signifies the fruition of a seed that has successfully come into bloom.” (p. 135).
I’m realizing that I’m typing the entire book. I gotta stop! Point is, I just read this this morning and then read your blog tonight and felt like sharing. I also like how they say that Christ is giving us the privilege to advance. Tying this to your thoughts, perhaps we have the privilege to experiment as we figure out how we advance.
Thank you for sharing what you read! It is very relevant!