Perfect English

A few days ago I was working in the hospital when I heard Danae calling me. “Yes?” I answered.

“This guy, Zacharia, wants to learn English. He’s been over to my house twice asking for someone to practice English with him. Would you be willing to do it with him sometimes?”

“Ummm…sure.” I answered a little bit hesitantly. You see of everything I could have done as a Student Missionary, I purposefully avoided anything that involved teaching English. I was NOT interested. Ever since I arrived here though, everyone seems to think that I would be of the most use here if I were willing to teach English. It’s like they all agreed on pestering Miki to teach English.

On Friday Charis and I went to choir practice. And guess who our choir director is? Zacharia! After practice ended he came up to us to ask us again if we would be willing to teach him English. This was when I realized, I have no idea what I would actually be teaching him. His English is EXCELLENT! Charis was wondering this as well, we were standing there, listening to him talk, and she asked him, “But what are we supposed to teach you? You already know so much!”

He replied, “But it’s not good enough. I want to practice speaking with you so that I can be even better.”

I was quite amazed. He wasn’t content with just good enough. He wasn’t content with excellent. He wants PERFECTION.

Now I know that many times in my life I have looked at what I am doing and then looked around me and thought, “I’m not so bad at this whole Christianity thing. Compared to everyone else I am an excellent Christian.”

But in being content with simply excellent am I shortchanging myself? Maybe I should be striving for perfection like Zacharia in his pursuit of English. Shouldn’t I be using my energy to achieve perfect obedience to the will of God? Even if that obedience includes tutoring people in their English or looking like a religious freak to the people around me?

After everything is said and done, isn’t the most important thing to have been perfectly obedient to God anyway? After all we’re only here on this earth for a tiny blip of time. I believe that there are far, far greater things ahead then anything we’ll leave behind. It’s not easy to be obedient, but I don’t think it has to be. In the end it will be worth it.