Perfection, Control, the Small Things

In principle, the goals of perfection and control, that things turn out the best way possible, are of utmost importance (by definition). But perfection and control themselves are spiritually dangerous. Not even God perfects and controls everything, so why should we? Behaving irrationally with respect to what is best is (at least sometimes) better than being rational, if it keeps you from succumbing to perfection and control.

In order to actually do good on any big scale, and to be whole-hearted and to give all your strength, you have to trust ... something (de dicto) ... which is to some extent, or entirely, really you trusting God (de re). Otherwise you'll worry about small risks of your own life, fearful of dying, shame, failure, or others. These will make you be responsible, in a bad way. Your temporal (and, metaphorically, "spatial") horizons will be clamped down on by that responsibility. You won't be able to believe God when he appears to you, telling you to bless the whole.

In order to love, to have deep feelings and deep intentions, you have to trust.

Perhaps there is a tradeoff, between being good at being responsible for the little things, and being good at being responsible for the big things. Whether we can accomplish big things in our lives is largely up to a lot of things beyond our control, but we can approach life as people who are responsible for what is big (deep, real, the heart of the problem), and risk neglecting some of the things that are shallower, less real, less the heart of the problem. The little details that are crucial are part of something bigger.