11.16.24 ~When Imperfection Leads to Perfection

Good morning!

What a week! Yahweh's provision was over the top spiritually, emotionally, physically, relationally and financially. Too many things to share, but the praise was going up early this morning heading into the Sabbath day (Gen. 2:1-3; 1 Thess. 5:18).

Commercial: Last night's zoom on vayeira/and he appeared: Life Lessons on How God appears Today: How He does answer prayer, not as we always think, and how to live each day to the fullest, salty life possible

In Genesis 18:11, the Torah relates in this week's portion, Vayeira:
וְאַבְרָהָם וְשָׂרָה זְקֵנִים בָּאִים בַּיָּמִים חָדַל Now Abraham and Sarah were old, coming on or with days/baim bayamim.

They weren't just growing old/zakein (Gen. 18:11), they were literally 'coming on in/with days'; a title given to only 2 others, Joshua (Josh. 13:1; 23:1) and David (1 Kg. 1:1). Hmmm. What's up with this? Enquiring minds want to know.

What the verse is saying is that they showed up with each of their days. Each day was accounted for; each day was lived to the fullest; each day was wholesome, meaningful, and complete. They came with all their days. No day had to be left behind. Oh, that would be said of me...my choice! But, how can that be if we include Abram's idolatrous past?

The fact that Abraham made a remarkable transition in his life  is, of course, the bomb-diggity! One man stood up against an entire 'tower of babel' world because he cared for Truth. Yet this precisely was the greatness of Abraham: that he had the courage to tear himself away from a youth spent in error; that he could start all over again when discovering his mistakes. And we will see this next week in the life of Sarah (Gen. 23:1)

Maybe there is a simple answer. Contrary to modern evangelical perspective, the Torah’s perspective, practice, trial, and error are all integral components of keeping the commandments/mitzvot itself in order to come with all our days. When the Torah obligates an individual to begin observing all of the commandments/mitzvot it does not mean that on that day they should suddenly perform them all flawlessly. Rather, the Torah is obligating us to begin the process of mitzvah observance, knowing full well that it is a process that takes time and will inevitably be less than perfect for a while.

As I shared on the zoom call last night, when I started my new opportunity here at Faith Works in Stanton, Michigan, there was, and is, a whole lot that I didn't know. But, under a watchful eye, I'm slowly learning how to do things well. Yep, I still make mistakes, but they are becoming fewer and fewer with each passing day.

Success takes time, trial, error, and repetition till you get it right. As Zig Ziglar, of blessed memory said, 'if anything's worth doing, it's worth doing wrong until you get it right.' That necessary 'training time' is part of keeping every mitzvah (Jn. 14:15).

And, this is the answer to our original question, how can the Torah describe all of the days of Abraham and Sarah as spiritually wholesome, despite them worshipping idols in their youths?

There is a profound message here—and it is at the heart of the seed of Abraham. Abraham and Sarah were not born in an environment of Torah. On the contrary, they were born and raised in ancient Ur of Chaldees, a city in Southern Iraq, dominated by idolatry and the cult of kings as demigods, in which the gods were perceived as blood-thirsty jealous titans. Now, God—the real God—did not expect Abraham and Sarah to turn their lives upside down in a single day! People are not robots or computers. Humans need the time and mental space to inquire, investigate, research, question, and slowly evolve in their consciousness. The road to truth is paved by trial and error, again and again...hopefully, not graduating Magna Cum Laude in the school of hardknocks!

This is why the Torah tells us that Abraham and Sarah "came with all of their days." From God’s perspective, all of their days were perfectly wholesome; because they were constantly moving upwards on their journey of becoming who God intended them to be/lekh lekha. Of course, many of these years included theological blunder and false pagan beliefs. But that was part of their search for truth. The road to perfection leads through imperfection. The road to truth runs through error. The road to awareness travels through failure...so admit it and move on (Matt. 3:8; 21:28-30; Isa. 1:16,17; Lk. 3:8-14; Acts 26:20; Rom. 2:4-7; 2 Cor. 7:10,11; Jer. 7:3-7; 26:13; 36:3; etc.). They were not entrenched in idolatry because they were careless and gluttonous; they were seeking the truth and in our complex world, as we all know, we often embrace the wrong before you discover the right.

My dad, of blessed memory, loved Winston Churchill. A quote he is famous for is: 'Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.' I can view my errors, shortcomings, setbacks, and failures as the bad days of my life; I can view my traumas as my prison sentences, those experiences which paralyzed me and keep living that way. Or...

Some of us know, on the road of coming with all our days, we have encountered potholes and ditches. We stumbled. We fell. Sometimes we got badly bruised and made some foolish mistakes. Some of us, in our trauma or ignorance, hurt our loved ones along the way.

Sometimes we look back at our stories and feel dejected. Yep. We feel that we wasted so many years. Yep. We look back at our lives, review the unwise decisions we made for ourselves, or our loved ones, due to our ignorance, pain, confusion, anxiety, and cluelessness, and we become demoralized. Yep. The pain and the regrets cripple us. Yep. We wish we would have discovered what we know now far earlier. Double Yep. Life isn't something that should be edited. Nope! The only way we discover our soul is through going through the processes we did. Yep. Every pitfall, every mistake, every confusing moment, is an integral part of our journey toward our own truth/Lekh Lekha. We must embrace them all. Even the bruises are somehow part of our ultimate destination.

Of course, at times I need to grieve, and at times I need to apologize and make restitution to the best of my ability. Yet my focus can be to redefine my traumas as the springboards that allow me to become the person I am capable of becoming and empower me to cast my unique light into this world. We, speaking of me, myself and I, have engaged in all types of behaviors that seem today to be empty and foolish; filled with shame, and often are terrified of anyone discovering our past. But authentic Abrahamic faith sees it differently. Your mistakes are all part of your search for God. They too constitute a glorious part of your journey toward oneness and wholeness.

Yes, when we discover the truth we must have the courage, like Abraham and Sarah, to smash the idols of falsehood and the gods of stupidity. Yet we must still look at compassion for the time we were "outside," looking in, trying to find our way, our soul, our God. When imperfection leads to perfection it is imperfectly perfect and frequently miserably wonderful.

Shabbat Shalom!