Column: Be at peace with weakness and failure. You're doing the best you can

My neighbor and I were out watering and chatting last evening when we heard what sounded like thunder.

No way, we both agreed.

I was about done, but she watered even as the raindrops fell. Despite the morning’s sprinkles, my garden is dry as dust. Lush just four days ago, my basil is now decimated by Japanese beetles.

When I kept backyard chickens, I could turn them loose in my garden and they’d pick my plants clean of beetles and bugs.

Still, bees are working the lavender and I should see monarch caterpillars on the butterfly weed any day now, so all is not nuisance and bother in my garden.

I also spent some of yesterday trying to restore some order indoors. Nothing satisfies quite like cleaning out my refrigerator. I’ll refrain from adding a photo, but trust me, it’s impressive. Everything is so shiny-clean and organized, which is how it will stay until the next time I put away groceries. I also have a bag and box of things from around the house to donate.

A new router came in the mail and I got it set up all by myself, but that meant taking nearly everything off my desk, so now this space is sorted and organized too. Of course, I make a mess to clean up a mess, so it matters where one looks when seeking to be impressed.

The connections are easy-peasy. However much I wish my life could be orderly inside and out, there are simply too many factors not in my control. And even if they were, I don’t have the energy or focus to manage all of them all the time. Peace with my own weakness and failure is the better part of faith, I suppose, knowing I am doing the best I can and, most of all, that God is faithful, always. Always. Always. Always.

If I’ve learned anything at all, it’s to step into the day slowly. Allow room between sleep and work: to wake up, to listen, to practice gratitude, to center myself in heart and mind and body, to center myself in the day and to honor what is truly reasonable to expect of one person in one day in this world right now. Then go forth from there, with much forgiveness for my own imperfection, as well as others’, choosing to believe that most of us are doing the best we can most of the time.

While God is forever in the mix as well, faithful in our weakness. Especially in our weakness. I pray the day is gentle and kind to you.

Peace and prayers, Pastor Annette

Annette Hill Briggs is pastor at University Baptist Church in Bloomington.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: OPED Pastor urges acceptance of imperfection in self and in others