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Often I let myself off the hook by the “nobody’s perfect” mindset, instead of getting serious about living a life with zero defects, where no failure to live up to the standard is excused, rationalized or accepted.

If you worked on an assembly line and you were told that they expected a 95% error-free rate, then you would know that you can make a certain number of errors, say ten errors a day. So, as you start out in the morning, you make your first error. How do you think? “No problem, I’ve still got nine to go.” Right? As the day progresses, the errors start to mount; three, five, six—but you’re still operating within the error tolerance, so those quality misses don’t worry you that much.

Now consider how you would respond if you were working under the zero defects philosophy. Your goal now is to see how close you can come to perfection. No errors. Would that first mistake bother you? Undoubtedly a lot more than when you knew you had nine more to go. Do you think you’d be more conscientious, more careful, more motivated to do it right? I think so.

What differences would it make in my life and yours if we got serious about being holy and blameless—zero defects? Suppose you approached each day with the idea that you wanted to get through that entire day without any errors; you truly wanted to be like Jesus, holy and blameless.

Don’t you think you’d come a lot closer to achieving that goal than you would with the “nobody’s perfect” mindset which most of us have? Don’t you think you’d be more careful about what you say, about your attitude, about how you work, about integrity and honesty? And do you think those around you would see the difference if you operated with a zero defects standard?

I want to encourage you not to settle for the “nobody’s perfect” mentality. I realize it looks like mission impossible to live a holy life, but what God calls us to be he empowers us to be. First Thessalonians 5:24 tells us that “The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.” Our God knows we can’t be holy on our own; we’ll never make it. But if he calls us to be holy, he is prepared to show us how to reach holiness; otherwise, God would be mocking us, and he doesn’t do that.