Most people who know me know that I grew up in church. I practically lived at church. If the doors were open, and even sometimes when they weren’t, I was there. I grew up hearing about God constantly. I loved my childhood in the church and there’s not much I would change about it.

Once I became a teenager, things became a little more complicated. I learned a lot of real and true things about God, but I also learned some things that weren’t true. During my preteen years, I learned that to pray or be considered a good Christian, my life needed to be perfect. If I had any sin, I needed to fix it first. I believed that I couldn’t come before God until my heart was spotless.

There was only one problem with that: once I felt like I was in a good place, I always found something else wrong. Or I messed up in some way. Basically, anytime I felt like I had finally reached the goal line, it moved a few more inches. No matter what I did, I could never reach it. I was never perfect enough. I spent so much time broken over the state of my heart that eventually, I gave up even trying.

Then one day, I felt God say to my heart, “I would rather you come broken than not come at all.” After that day, my mindset changed.

In the Bible, there’s a moment where Jesus is asked by the Pharisees why He spends all His time among sinners. He responds to them saying, “I didn’t come for the healthy, I came for the sick.”

Isn’t it funny how even while our hearts are sick, we think we need to be healed first? Even though Jesus made it very clear He came for the sick, we try our best to hide our disease from Him. We find whatever we can to make sure we don’t seem sick while we’re slowly dying.

Why do we feel the need to come to God perfectly? What makes us think that’s what He expects of us? He knows us. He’s the One who formed us. He knows how we were made; He was there when we were created from the dust. He knows that we are broken and hurt by this fallen world we live in. He doesn’t ask us to come to Him healthy. He just wants us to be with Him.

Coming to Him imperfectly is better than not coming to Him at all. He would rather us come into His presence broken and bruised than for us to stay away until we feel we’re ready. He wants us to bring all of our broken pieces to Him because He is the Healer. Whatever is broken, He is capable of fixing. 

It’s so easy to get caught up in feeling like we have to have it all together first. In a world that revolves around social media, it’s no wonder we think that. The good news is we don’t have to. He came for those of us who have imperfections. He came for the broken, the weary, the bruised. He has seen us at our worst and He still calls us to Him. He still wants us.

Does that mean that He wants us to stay the way we are? No! He wants to perfect us and make us more like Him. He wants to heal our brokenness. All we have to do is show up.

I’ve come a long way from that preteen girl who felt burdened by my brokenness. As a recovering perfectionist, it’s a relief to know that I don’t have to perfect myself. I’m the clay and He’s the potter; He is the One with the power to change me. One of the beautiful things about the image of the potter and the clay is that it takes time for the potter to form the clay the way he wants it.

Since the day that He spoke to me, life has been easier. I still get tripped up on my imperfections sometimes, but as time goes on I’ve noticed that I have more grace with myself. Making a mistake doesn’t break me like it used to. I’ve learned to trust the Potter as He molds me into the woman of God He wants me to be.

We are all works in progress. We are all broken people in need of grace. When we accept where we are in our process, we find freedom in following Jesus. We can surrender to the Potter and allow Him to mold us into the person we need to be. You can go to Him and lay your burdens, your pain, and all your broken pieces at His feet. He’s just waiting for you to take the first step.