HAPPY EASTER! I hope you all had a fantastic Easter! I had an interesting
one; Grant Shimai got way sick so we ended up staying inside aaaaall day. She's
doing much better now, so I'm happy. Yesterday morning I was able to steal out
of my futon early in the morning and hide 25 paper eggs all over her desk for
when she woke up. I wrote funny messages on them and she loved it. I just miss
holidays.
In all my time indoors yesterday, I had quite a while to think about
Easter, and what it truly means. Did you know that the name and holiday come
from a festival that was already being practiced in Jesus's time? So Christians
adopted the festival just for convenience and decided to make it about Jesus. I
thought it was pretty funny, convenience seems to be the history behind a lot of
Holidays, the more you read about them.
Anyways, in the midst of all my thinking, I thought of Christ's invitation
to become like Him, Essentially, in the words of Mary Poppins, to be
"practically perfect in every way". But at the same time, this invitation
contradicts the world-wide acceptance that "no one is perfect". So why try?
I have a friend who once told me that it was impossible to be perfect, so
we should give up. He told me, in times when I apologized or tried to improve
myself, that I had no need to, once more repeating that it was impossible to be
perfect. But why would Christ ask the impossible of us?
I must admit in the past couple of weeks I have felt the dread of looking
up at the long path ahead of me on the Mount Everest of Becoming the Perfect
Missionary. In doing so, I became discouraged; the path is long, it seems a
difficult climb, and is the climb worth it? I began to slack off, believing that
I could never reach the Peak of Perfection, so I should settle where I am, or
even climb down just a little because it was just easier.
But this week has placed me back on the mountain - no longer focused on how
far the Peak was from my reach, but instead at the little steps I can take here
and there. We had a companion exchange with another sister's companionship. The
sister who came to Komatsu and stayed with me happened to be the leader over all
the sisters in my zone - needless to say I was somewhat nervous. But she really
helped me to see the little steps I could take to make it little by little
closer to the Peak of Perfection. The following day, I had an interview with my
mission president, a regular check-in, but he also helped me to see ways I could
improve. I also spoke to his wife and to my zone leader. To top it all off, even
my district leader told me ways I should improve. Once more I felt that my
backpack was loaded too heavy with the improvements to be made - I felt I could
never reach the Peak.
But, in the words of Miley Cyrus, "it's not about how fast I get there and
it's not about what's waiting on the other side, it's the climb".
Before you wince at the song that I indeed just referenced, let me tell
something to you. God knows that we will never reach the peak in this lifetime -
to be perfect is impossible. BUT, to Him, what is important is that we try.
He will make up for the rest, as long as we do our best.
And on that note, I take out one improvement at a time from my big heavy
backpack and take another step towards that peak, knowing full well that it is
impossible, but that God is cheering me on every step of the way.
