Who's perfect? Only a few pitchers in baseball

Love this shot. I took it in Jamestown, Va.

Donatists: Ever hear of them?

They were a Christian sect that existed in the 4th and 5th centuries A.D. in, primarily, the Roman provinces in Africa. Alright, now...why should anyone care?

Well, the Donatists considered themselves the "true Church" because they had a zero-defect philosophy that was nearly impossible for anyone I know to ever come close to living.

If someone was a priest within the Donatist faith and...say...they lied or cheated, stole or somehow did something wrong; the Church would refuse to allow any marriages, christenings...anything that priest did to stand. So, let's say you were married by Father Joe when you're 18, but 20 years later Father Joe is caught stealing from the poor box. The way it went would go something like this: Father Joe is defrocked (unmade as a priest), then everything he did as part of his office for his entire career is unmade with him.

This was the home of a zealot in Lincoln, NE I shot.

Remember when Father Joe married you 20 years ago, and you had children and they might have had children and Father Joe had done all the marriages and christenings? Well, none of them took place in the eyes of the Donatist Church. That was a real, live problem for people.

The Donatists lived in a Christian world of black and white with no gray in-between.

On a certain level, that is admirable. But, it's just not the way Jesus taught, to my view. Who knows anything about perfect loyalty? Lots of people would raise their hand, knowing they were lying like a rug. I'm not perfect, you're not perfect in life. It's possible to be perfect, I guess, if you're a baseball pitcher.

The only thing I do perfectly is being a New York Mets fan. Why? They demand nothing from me. I don't have to do a thing to just love the Mets. It's easy to love a sports team because there is no way of being unfaithful to them (other than rooting against them, I suppose).

Love has a lot to do with a lot. I think it is something at the core of our spiritual journey. But, being perfect in love is a lot harder than it might seem at first. So what am I jabbering on about if no one is perfect? Well, that's just it -- no one is perfect.

People try and stumble, try and stumble again. Then they try and they don't stumble, but they are hit in the face with a tree limb (how'd that get there?). I don't know how anyone else feels about it, but I'm going to keep trying to get it right. Maybe we're not measured in perfection by God (for those who believe). Maybe, we're just measured by how many times we can stumble and keep trying to get up.