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我第一年教学时，班上有一个中学生，除非她把作业做得十全十美，否则她便拒绝交给我。她是一个聪颖和勤力的学生，但她这门课却不合格，因为她欠交的作业实在太多了。我便与她和她的妈妈倾谈，我们讨论令她陷在瘫痪状态中的完美主义，接着我们便安排她以自修的方式重修这一门课，她最终以优异成绩通过了。

跟从耶稣时，我们也很容易被类似的完美主义所困。我们心里的声音可能试图说服我们，如果我们不能完完全全地跟从耶稣，我们就是在犯罪了。然而，我们需要治死这些倾向，因为即使我们已因着耶稣为我们的牺牲得蒙拯救，我们仍然会继续与罪恶搏斗的。尽管我们常常并不肯定知道如何实行神带领我们去做的事，但我们必须相信，神必定会继续在我们里面动工的。

举例说，我太太和我参与安置难民的事工，有机会认识来自世界各地不平凡的人，我们感到兴奋和庆幸；但我们却是“恐惧战兢”地参与这事工的，因为我们不是专家，我们需要不断学习不同的文化和它们之间的微妙之处。尽管如此，在我们以不坚定的脚步逐渐建立新的友谊时，我们的新朋友也一直都怀着善意和感谢来接纳我们。

In my first year of teaching I had a high school student who refused to hand in any work unless it was perfect. She was a bright and dedicated student, but she failed the course because so much work was not handed in. I sat down with her and her mother, and we discussed her paralyzing perfectionism. Then we made arrangements for her to retake the course as an independent study, and she passed with flying colors.

It can be easy for us to fall into a similar perfectionism in following Jesus. A voice within us can convince us that if we are not following Jesus perfectly, we are sinning. We need to die to tendencies like that because we will continue to struggle with sin even though we are already saved through Jesus’ sacrifice for us. We have to trust that God will continue to work in us even though we aren’t always sure how to do what God is leading us to do.

For example, my wife and I help with a refugee resettlement ministry, and we have been excited and honored to meet amazing people from all over the world. But we work at this with some “fear and trembling” because we are not experts and we keep learning about different cultures and intercultural sensitivity. Even so, as we stumble our way into new relationships, our new friends have always received us with grace and gratitude.