The Perfect Perfect

“Therefore let them be instructed by you, at least by your deeds.” What does this verse mean to me? Well, what does it mean to you? How many of you believe you live a life of example? Perhaps you feel unqualified? That’s exactly how I felt. When I sat down and started to think about the oratory I was going to be giving for the last year I would be in high school. I wanted it to be moving. Funny. And finally I decided that I wanted it to be about exemplary life. I felt like I had no right, no privilege of allowing others to follow me. A mere adolescent 17 years of age, hormones off the charts, grips on reality out of the question, and virtually inexperience in the ways of the world, some may go so far as to call me sheltered… what can I say about leading a life of example? Well, if I stick to my state of mind as an adolescent, I;m obviously not going to have too much to say for at least another decade. But if I stand outside of myself, and reflect on the quote as rational intelligent human being, you’re gonna have an earful.

This past year, just before Christmas, I got a job at a pizza joint no more than a 15 minute drive from home. The area in which the restaurant was situated has some wealthy neighborhoods, but for the most part, the community is downtrodden. Before coming in to work, I had no knowledge of the people that worked there. I had a friend from school with whom I’d be working, but he was the only person I knew. He had told me that they needed workers. I needed a job, and I got hired right on the spot. I learned some very shocking things within just a couple weeks of my employment

My manager age 46. His oldest child? A son at the ripe young age of 31. My manager impregnated his girlfriend, of the same age, at 14. He got married at age 15 and became a father shortly after that birthday. His so called “wife” ran away, and so, at 16, he got divorce and continued to raise the child alone. A girl who is one of the pizza makers is 16. She had an abortion at 15, and is now expecting a child in late January. The father you might ask? One of five possibilities. Another one of the pizza makers is a male who is my age. He himself is expecting fatherhood in a few months and marriage sooner than that. One of the delivery drivers is 35 and has held the same job since HE was 17. He now has a wife (whom he complains much about) and a child to feed. And finally we have the girl who answers the phone. She is also the same age as me. She spends a few months in jail every now and then due to repeated civil offense. Estimated percentage of chain-smoking employees under the age of 18, not enrolled in school, working full-time, or not living at home with their parent(s): 50-75%.

Don’t think I am giving you the situations of these people because I believe that they are examples worth following. But living up to the definition of example, their lives teach us something. Try NOT to do this! But you see, there is something that all of us share, even if we are not in situations that grave. We are all imperfect in the eyes of God. That is why in Matthew 5:48, Jesus tells us “therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect”. So, we all have a journey to make, a path to follow, one towards perfection. Some of us have already traveled a different path, one perhaps in an opposite direction than that leading towards God. Of that I would have to say I’M the example. But that does not mean that