Is striving for perfection in spirituality actually holding us back?

scarletwalker · 2025-12-09T03:30:25+00:00

So, God wants us to be perfect, right? That’s the message I keep hearing, no matter where I look. It’s in church sermons, spiritual books, even in some darker corners of occult thought. The story is always the same: we’re broken, flawed, not good enough as we are, and we have to spend our lives climbing toward some perfect ideal. I’ve been turning this over in my mind. Whether it’s called salvation, enlightenment, or ascending to your higher self, the core idea feels identical. We’re told we’re inferior and need to fix ourselves to be worthy of something greater. The entire project of spirituality seems built on this foundation of not being okay. But what if we got it backwards? What if the point isn’t to become perfect at all? I’m not talking about a feel-good, watered-down version of spirituality that just says “love yourself.” I mean really sitting with the idea that imperfection isn’t a problem to solve. What if we’re meant to be exactly as we are—flaws and all—and that’s the whole point? It makes you wonder what we’re really striving for, and who set these rules in the first place.

scarletwalker

It seems we’re returning to the old notion that “bad” simply denotes imperfection while “good” implies flawless perfection, a perspective I’ve noticed shaping many recent debates and influencing how we judge everyday choices.

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