B. U. G. S.

I was taking high school Latin and we had a substitute teacher. One girl in the class had gotten a series of A pluses on her tests because she had gotten all the answers right.

The new teacher said to her, in class, “I can’t give you A pluses like your earlier teacher did. A plus means perfection and perfectionis like..”

And she pointed upward dramatically,

“God.”

I was about fifteen years, but I added her comment to my already very long list entitled, “Incredibly Dumb Things People Say When They’re Trying to be Wise.”

Her concept of God Almighty was somebody who made a perfect score on a high school Latin test.

And she was dead serious.

I have heard a number of sermons on The Rich Young Man. Jesus said to him, “If you would be PERFECT, sell all you have and give it to the poor and FOLLOW ME.”

Not one word of any of those sermons even mentioned the fact that the Rich Young Man was being asked to become an Apostle of Jesus Christ. All that ever matters about the Rich Young Man was that he was rich.

Which was exactly the attitude Jesus was criticizing him for.

Jesus was asking him to BEGIN by renoucing his fortune. Jesus was saying he needed to do that to become PERFECT. Heaven is not limited to Perfect People.

AFTER the young man followed Jesus, he would GROW to be something much more than wealthy.

Perfection can be achieved by a worm. He can be a perfect worm. But will it matter?

Would God surrender his throne to a person who scored perfect on a Latin test? Even a COLLEGE Latin test?

One thing you will notice about people or business or people who make a difference in the world is that a lot of confusion and a lot of bad mistakes go with their success. They are growing.

By definition, growth is not perfection.