If you expect this posting to be a “how-to” on achieving perfection in your life, guess again.

It ain’t gonna happen.

From a religious perspective, achieving perfection is for the sole purpose of guaranteeing a pleasant existence in the afterlife. Other than that, there is little incentive to seek perfection. To borrow a common phrase, we would say “what’s in it for me?”

Let’s face it, we were all born selfish. Sharing and giving weren’t in the original recipe. Anyone who is a parent knows the challenge of teaching children to share. While we might not express it so formally, “Thou shalt not steal” is one of the first lessons we teach our children in preparing them to function in society. It is one of the first steps we take in trying to mold them into moral perfection.

Despite our best efforts, it remains an impossible goal. If you question that statement, take a look in the mirror and ask yourself if you are eligible to cast the first stone. Who among us isn’t guilty of snatching a piece of candy from the grocery store bulk bin or telling that little white lie about why we stayed home from work?

It is only human for us to rate our sins on a sliding scale. Surely, walking away when the cashier gave us too much change isn’t as serious as murder, is it?

Either way, we fall short of the perfection required of a citizen of God’s heaven.

Many of the world’s religious philosophies encourage a life of obedience to higher moral principles as the key to a paradise in the afterlife. Only Christianity acknowledges “it ain’t gonna happen” through human effort. Only Christianity recognizes that, as flawed humans, we are incapable of achieving perfection.

So, what are our options if we cannot achieve perfection? If it is an impossible task, what incentive do we have to even try?

The answer, of course, is the very foundation of Christianity. Christian faith is based on the concept that Jesus Christ took on the burden of our inability to live a perfect life. It was His sacrifice that paid the debt we owe for our inability to achieve that perfect life.

The incentive we have to strive for perfection is that, by doing so, we strengthen our relationship with our Creator. That effort is our way of acknowledging and repaying that debt to the extent we are able. It is our way of demonstrating our appreciation for the opportunity to reach that heavenly reward.

Will any of us reach that level of perfection?

It ain’t gonna happen – and that is all the more reason to try.