God uses hairdressers to provide grace

August 18, 2022

Maria Grace, Hebrews 13, Meditation , , , , 4 Comments

How the Lord used hairdressers to help us

Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. Hebrews 13:16 ESV

Have you ever considered that passing on useful information or ideas to someone else is a way to share what you have? God, who exhorts us to care for others, has not just given us helping hands and material resources, but words and possible solutions to bless others. Fresh suggestions involving different ways to solve a problem might be just what someone needs to hear from you.

The most valuable tangible help that we ever received came from my hairdresser in Newport News, Virginia.  For decades Mike had suffered from a stress-induced physical symptom that no doctor or psychologist could relieve. Like a gray cloud that hung over our family, this ‘thing’ dogged us.

Did we pray about it?  Of course!  But as developing, growing Christians, we didn’t have a lot of spiritual depth.  Nor did we worship in a denomination that viewed God’s word as true and living. 

Hairdressers make great listeners.  Women benefit more than guys, because they spend longer in their coiffeur’s chair and visit regularly.  A woman’s relationship with her hairdresser can last years. 

One day I was sharing Mike’s condition with my gal and how the ‘on-going-ness’ sapped him of joy.  To my surprise, she responded, “Honey, what Mike needs is Buspirone.  It’s an anti-anxiety med that really works!” Before long, my husband had switched over from his ineffective anti-depressant to Buspirone. It was like a miracle! We still thank God to this day.

That was about twelve years ago. We live in north Alabama now and James is my hair guy. Three weeks ago, as I sat in his chair, he offered unbidden, “Let me tell you about this great meditation app I’ve been using!”

As it so happened, Mike and I had just completed our first experience with meditation apps, using John Eldredge’s Pause app.  Thirty consecutive days incorporating this spiritual practice had instilled in us the desire to keep it up.

Talk about God’s timeliness! With all the churn we are going through with Mike’s mom as well as his impending retirement, we NEEDED to add regular guided biblical meditation to our lives.

I marvel at how through each day’s Bible passages forming this 15–20-minute experience, the Lord guides, corrects, comforts and encourages me, depending on what he knows I need.  I can’t wait to bring James up to date on how impactful his suggestion has been. Thank you, Lord, both for prompting James and for causing him to be obedient to you!

So, what useful information might you be sitting on that God intends for someone needy?   The only way to know is to engage with people throughout the day.  When we show sincere curiosity, strike up conversations, get out of ourselves and leave our circumstances in God’s hands, we often see how what we have or know might help someone.  God uses all of his creation to provide grace.  You and I are part of that grace meant for others.

Centered on Jesus for protection

August 11, 2022

Maria Psalm 5, Refuge 1 Comment

…let all who take refuge in you be glad;….you surround them with your favor as with a shield. Psalm 5:11-12 NIV

Lightening shattered the sky as torrential downpours hovered over us.  This storm had caught us unaware half-way into our hike. Besides being soaked through and picking our way carefully among the roots and gullies, I had slipped on a rock and landed on my right forearm. Thank God for his grace, for my arm fell on dirt rather than something sharp.  Nonetheless, the scrape was bad.  I held my arm up to catch the rain, washing off the blood.

When we hike, I follow Mike.  This day, I had been focusing on his backpack.  That morning I had meditated on Jesus’ promised provision of daily bread. I pictured all my stockpiled supplies in that backpack that the Lord daily carries for me. During the rain, I stayed close to Mike’s heels. This gave me a good visual of how closely I need to follow Jesus with my eyes locked onto that backpack full of planned provision.

Once the rain started, we hurried downhill as quickly as we dared. The ominous circumstances triggered a reminder of Satan’s lurking. Those storms seemed to park themselves right over us for the entire long descent.  Encountering two large snakes reenforced my awareness of evil’s presence. Gingerly, we stepped around these serpents, one while we ascending and one on our way down. Neither of them scurried out of the way.  What’s up with that?  I thought snakes avoided people.  Were they intent on catching us unaware?

By God’s mercy, almost an hour after the heavens opened up, we reached Mike’s red truck and found shelter.  Mike’s relief was palpable in his words, “Never again are we going to hike when the sky looks questionable!”  Mike has a healthy respect for lighting.  He knows fellow Ranger candidates who died, having been struck by lightening during patrols.

The next morning, Sunday, our Bible reading plan included Psalm 5.  Given our experience the day before, I immediately connected our safety with the words of verses 11 and 12 cited at the top of this post.

I pictured myself sheltered by God’s three-person shield. In my mind’s eye I ‘saw’ each member of the Holy Trinity with his back toward me. The father positioned himself on my left. Jesus planted himself right in front.  And the Spirit closed me in on the right.  The three locked shields to keep me surrounded and protected. 

I imagined them so close to me that I felt almost cocooned.

Friends, this is what God’s surrounding favor looks like.  No wonder the psalmist rejoiced in the midst of danger. 

God doesn’t block all the storms or the enemy’s attacks on us, but he keeps us safe and provides just what we need to stand firm, not giving into fear.

Empty Hands

August 4, 2022

Maria Uncategorized 2 Comments

The Lord is on my side as my helper Psalm 118:7 ESV

 “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So, we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” Hebrews 13:6 ESV

Have you noticed those therapy animals that accompany people on airplanes or in stores like Home Depot?  Their role is to provide emotional support and comfort. Knowing that this beloved and reassuring creature is always with them helps people face whatever stresses or scares them.

We believers have something better than a support animal. We have Jesus. In one way our Lord is similar to the four-legged friend; he has committed to being with us as long as he lives, which is forever. Beyond that, the comparison changes to how Jesus is so much more. 

For one, he knows our thoughts and he understands our heart. He has already planned the events of our today. He promises to provide not just comforting companionship, but wisdom, strength, guidance, protection, rest, safety and instruction.  He truly has our best interests at heart.

The only ‘drawback’ if any, is that we have to practice using our creative imagination to picture Jesus with us. We can’t reach out and feel him as we do when we rub our hands through the fur of an animal friend.  But Jesus won’t die on us.  We are and will be always with him and he with us.

In the last few weeks, I have been guiding my imagination to picture Jesus.  I have picked our ‘encounter’ location to be, what is for me, the most beautiful spot in the world – a Northern Italian alpine meadow.

I visualize meeting Jesus in a summer-day’s field, surrounded by mountains.  Cattle, with their tinkling bells, and sheep peacefully graze.  I’m either sitting on a bench with Jesus or we’re walking along an unpaved rural road – wide enough for a tractor or an agricultural truck, used only by local traffic such as farmers.

In this part of catholic Europe, you sometimes come upon small roadside shrines off to one side.  The other day while walking with Jesus he stopped as we came upon one of those way-side rustic altars.  Jesus turned to me and indicated that I was to lay down my burdens. So, I placed some worries on the altar.  With a pointed gaze he prompted me to continue

“Do you mean I should place my longings there as well?”  He nodded. I paused, “And my ‘sads’ and disappointments?” Again, that gentle assent.

My hands still held onto one more burden, my fears for the future, specifically what I and we might have to do for my declining mother-in-law. She lives on the other side of the country, with no family nearby. 

“Especially those!” came his response.

With empty hands I backed away. He smiled warmly, approval in his eyes.  Then he hoisted me up on his broad shoulders to carry me.  We resumed our walk.  What was I now to do with my hands, since I had emptied them back there at that altar?  Before an answer formed in my head, Jesus reached up and clasped them tightly. 

As we continued walking together down the road, both of us soaking in the beauty of Alpine Italy that he had created, I felt the comforting top of his backpack underneath my perch.  Besides carrying me, he had brought along all that I would need for the day in a small rucksack.  My daily supply lay close by.

Reassured, I started salivating, thinking about enjoying a chunk of warm, fresh Italian bread.

Do we trust the Lord in dire times?

July 28, 2022

Maria Habakkuk 3, Praise, Trusting God, Uncategorized , , 1 Comment

Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior. Habakkuk 3:17-18 NIV

Habakkuk ticks off six dire circumstances that he and his fellow Hebrews are facing. He doesn’t even mention that the Lord has announced his plan to hand over their homeland, Judah, to the cruel pagan Chaldeans.  Habakkuk reacts with horrified surprise.  Earlier he had pled with God to save Judah out of her very own wickedness.  He knows his people have broken God’s covenant time and time again.  So, he appeals to God’s love for God’s special people. 

But sending a cruel enemy TO Judah as part of God’s remedy is not Habakkuk’s idea of a rescue plan.  Toward the end of his dialogues with the Lord, he simply hands over the entire situation to God.  Communicating his ‘so be it, Lord’, he specifies all the conditions he had hoped would change for the better.

I decided to write my own version of Habakkuk’s prayer to communicate to the Father that I trust him even if he never provides, heals, restores or changes the issues weighing on my heart.

Though….

  • our retirement savings might not last us and….
  • We still live far from our 7 grandchildren, hindering the close relationships we long for and…
  • Our adult children continue to struggle with work, parenting and relying on God and…..
  • Mike’s mom is suffering alone on the other side of the country away from all family and….
  • We might not ever get to satisfy our desire to live overseas again and…..
  • Aging in these bodies doesn’t loom pleasant

Yet, will I consider myself blessed because I KNOW Jesus is with us. I KNOW for sure that our future with Jesus is going to be bright.

Is Jesus really better than anything this life offers?

July 21, 2022

Maria God's gifts, Matthew 16, Surrender , , , 1 Comment

For whoever wants to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. Matthew 16:25 NASB

My legs felt heavy as I climbed onto the strider. Fifteen minutes into a long block of cardio, I knew this was going to be a trying workout.  Coach Erin encouraged us by explaining how building endurance pays off.  ‘I know, I know. I can’t do this. Help me, Jesus!’  I pushed on.

That morning before my exercise class I had asked the Lord for a blog topic.  ‘What are you showing me today, Jesus, and how do you want me to present it?’

Jesus came through while I pushed myself harder on that cardio machine. Suddenly, the holy spirit reminded me of Jesus’ truth about giving up in order to receive.  

The remaining minutes on the strider passed more quickly as I fleshed out the connection between the spiritual and the physical.

How ironic, that to GAIN energy, you have to SPEND energy.  But it’s true.  Who ever feels like working out?  But we’re always glad when it’s over, right?  I always tend to feel stronger and more resilient after a workout. 

Maybe I can now look at Jesus’ teaching from this angle. If I want what Jesus offers, then I have to let go of what fills my hand.

Yesterday, something I read in John Eldredge’s new book, Resilient pulled me up short.  From page 197, “If you want to become a wholehearted person, you must reach the point where happily, lovingly, you give absolutely everything over to God. You make Jesus your everything, your all-in-all.  Not only is this the fulfillment of your heart’s created destiny, it is the source of all recovery and resilience.  Nothing can be taken from you because you’ve already surrendered everything.”

That last sentence stopped me cold. I knew, right away, that I have yet to surrender everything.  Like the biggies:

  • My and Mike’s health
  • The aging process
  • Our entire family’s well-being
  • Our money saved up for retirement (2 months away!)

This morning, I asked Jesus for help.  I wrote in my journal: “I want to give you everything, Jesus, so I can be empty of me.  I want what you offer to give me, to fill me.  I know in my head that your gifts will satisfy me far more than what I believe I have to hold on to. I give you these gifts of:

  • Writing
  • Language learning
  • Health
  • Fitness
  • A good marriage
  • Our families
  • Time and all our resources

As though to confirm this attitude, the Lord brought across my phone screen this George MacDonald quote:

“Man finds it hard to get what he wants, because he does not want the best. God finds it hard to give because he would give the best and man will not take it.

Father, help me, make me willing to empty my hands and receive your best.  Over and over again. Amen!

Hanging out with Jesus, permanently

July 12, 2022

Maria Uncategorized , , , , , 1 Comment

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. John 15:4

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. 2 Corinthians 5:17

By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 1 John 4:13

But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.
1 Corinthians 6:17

The New Testament has a lot to say about staying connected to Jesus. Our savior uses many images to communicate union with him.

Mentally, I understand what Jesus teaches. But living as though it is reality challenges me. The promise staggers the mind: ALL of God’s spiritual resources are available to the born-from-above Christian. We are promised protection, energy, wisdom, direction, understanding of heavenly things, love, hope, joy, strength and much else. To his small group of disciples, Jesus taught and re-taught connection with God using simple agricultural analogies, such as vines and branches, and being yoked with him.

To my relief, our Bible also records how often his guys forgot their master’s words and lived out of their own pathetic resources. Just as they did, I need help getting used to this offer of ongoing supernatural help. And I need to practice it. Or to put it in modern language, I need to bushwhack a new neural network in my brain. Over decades I have worn a deep rut that is easy to follow, that of depending on human strength and know-how.

Over the past two and half weeks, I have felt encouraged and emboldened to pick up my machete and forge a different pathway or neural network, one that I trust will become my default before too long.

I’m using a meditative app created by John Eldredge and his team. This is what it looks like.

If you put in the search bar of the app store ‘John Eldredge Pause’, you’ll see it. The app has some individual meditations, but I’ve been following the 30 Days to Resilient program. This morning (Day 16) the team talked much about staying connected and receiving from Jesus.

What has been hard up to now is that when we receive from Jesus, we don’t FEEL anything. To help myself, I jotted down some other ‘receivings’ that we probably don’t physically feel. These examples might not be perfect, but maybe one will spark a connection that helps.

Consider being hooked up to a dialysis machine. I did a little research and most sites said that if you are connected properly, you shouldn’t feel anything during the cleaning of your blood. This quote encouraged me:
“The best sign that you are getting good dialysis is that you feel well, look healthy and can do the things you want to do. With adequate dialysis, you should have a good appetite. When it’s time for your next treatment, you should feel like you don’t need it. This is the goal of dialysis.”

I thought of other illustrations:

  • A feeding tube
  • Blood transfusion
  • Oxygen masks
  • A wireless insulin pump
    I like this last one. A device is planted under your skin and administers insulin when your body needs it. I don’t know whether one FEELS the insulin entering his body, maybe not.

This is what our ongoing union with Jesus is like. We are permanently connected with our savior. Our challenge, especially in view of Satan, whose goal is to make us forget and FEEL alone without hope or help, is to RECALL our gifted and permanent connection with the Son of God. The passage way is always open for us to receive from Jesus, our vine.

It’s okay we don’t FEEL it physically. We have to SEE this pipeline with our new eyes, eyes of faith. Yes, we have new eyes, because we are new creations, grafted into Jesus and he into us.

Mike and I are facing difficult circumstances with his mom living on her own and far away. She is quickly fading physically and mentally, but what is MORE troubling is that she refuses to budge in her understanding of Christianity. She clings to the distortions she learned as a girl growing up catholic.

We need divine wisdom, guidance, financial resources and a host of other provision. All of which the Lord promises to provide. We just have to stay connected to our life-source and receive what he is ready to give.

Could Jesus’ yoke really be light?

July 7, 2022

Maria 1 Peter 5, Deuteronomy 33, Matthew 11, Worries , , , 2 Comments

Of Benjamin he said, “The beloved of the LORD dwells in safety. The High God surrounds him all day long, and dwells between his shoulders.”  Deuteronomy 33:12 ESV

Picture a dad carrying his child on his shoulders.  How secure do you suppose that little one feels?

With the protection of his dad’s strong hands holding on to his legs, this child can relax and enjoy the view from up high.

This mental image came to mind as I read Moses’ prophecy over the tribe named Benjamin, those descendants of the patriarch’s youngest son.

Then followed the picture of ME as that child, holding on to her father’s head. Why of course Jesus is carrying me. And my security does not depend on me, Maria, holding tight to his hair or head. No, it is the Lord who grips my legs.

I mused for a while, letting the Spirit flesh out the picture even more. From this high vantage point close to his ears, I tell God my fears and I can hear his comforting reply. I see what he sees.  My little-kid street view is limited.  From the horizontal, I can see no way out of my problems.  But gazing out on the landscape from this height and watching personal and current events unfold, my perspective is worlds’ apart from what I have depended on all my life.

If Jesus is carrying me, then he also is bearing all my burdens. I can off-load them to him as they occur, describing them in detail. He easily hears me since I perch close to his ears.

Two other images of our burden-bearing God came to mind this morning:

  • Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you. 1 Peter 5:7 NLT
  • Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is comfortable, and My burden is light. Matthew 11:29-30 NASB

A new good gift from God comes from a book I am reading called, Resilient. Daily, I’m being trained to give over all my anxieties to God.  Furthermore, I’m benefitting from an app created by John Eldredge and his team called the One Minute Pause app. Their 30-day program for how to receive resilience from God is changing how I react.

One of the truths that I have internalized is: “Jesus, I give everyONE and everyTHING to you, Lord.”

Doing that throughout my day is freeing up my mind and heart to listen and to receive God’s imparted strength.  Having off-loaded my racing thoughts about Mike’s upcoming retirement, the family members who need healing, friends weighed down by painful and troubling situations, I am sensing a new lightness.  This kind of ‘benevolent detachment’ frees me to be more present during my day.

This is a new practice, so I still catch myself falling back into trying to sort out situations on my own.  But the relapses don’t discourage me.  I FEEL a transformation.

Could it be that Jesus’ light yoke has as its goal simply to meet the day and do what is at hand? That’s my conclusion at this point.

Freed from worries, I open myself up to God, listening to the Spirit. I find myself expecting His resources to arrive on time.

I might be wrong, but I’m more than willing to practice this new release and receive rhythm.  All these verses are straight forward.  May we follow the simple meaning of the text, allowing Scripture to interpret Scripture. God means us to be free.

Wasteful nighttime worry

June 30, 2022

Maria Proverbs 19, Spiritual Warfare, Trusting God, Worry Leave a comment

Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand. Proverbs 19:21 ESV

The Lord had scheduled this verse in my reading this morning, for it hit home. 

I had lain in bed after ‘pee o’clock’ just thinking about various hypothetical scenarios.  You’d probably call it ‘worrying yourself sleepless!’ What kind of situations?

There’s my mother-in-law who grows weaker by the week.  She lives alone, but in a retirement community, about 2000 miles away from us. I foresee us making more frequent trips out to see and encourage her.

Another issue I spent time ‘planning for’ had to do with packing for an upcoming trip.  Then my worrying bordered on the ridiculous. Of all things, I started wondering just what I would do with my life if Mike died before me.  Yes, I know, all in the middle of the night.

I paid a price for giving into these anxiety projections – less sleep!

But it wasn’t a waste, for God redeemed it this morning by pointing out his truth, delivered by Solomon’s proverb.

How do those words help?  I’m choosing to draw a distinction between planning and preparing. Of the three topics that occupied my awake time, only one, Friday’s upcoming trip, involved an actual situation written on my calendar.  But as I had already written down some prep details during daylight hours, just what was the point in thinking about it at night?

But the other two scenarios, how Mom’s decline will play out and life as widow?????  I have NO business giving attention to them.  What prompted the latter worry, it can only have been Satan.  And about Mom, I was pondering her situation and our involvement only because she had been depressed that day when I zoomed with her.

Listening to her lamentations had led me to suggest two actions she could take the next day.  Other than that, for the time being, I can’t control her or supervise her to see that she actually puts into practice what I think will help her. I have to leave her in God’s hands and keep praying.

My imaginations, those speculative plans certainly won’t change God’s purposes.

Do you remember those ‘choose your own adventure’ books?  Here’s my application of that kind of authoring.  No matter how many possible ‘choose- your-own eventuality’ exist, until Mom’s story on Earth 1.0 ends, I know that God ‘has this all his hands’.  Furthermore, having experienced God’s creative solutions numerous times, I will not be surprised if how he has written the story is in a way I would never have imagined.

So, what’s the whole point in telling you all this?  Just that, in case you’re like me and occasionally fall prey to that temptation to lie awake worrying, maybe seeing the silliness in my preoccupations might help you see more clearly your own unholy imaginings. 

Let’s pray rather that we trust the Holy Spirit to give us supernatural power to resist the suggestion to start imagining an ending. God has got this!

Are you just not the exuberant type of Christian?

June 23, 2022

Maria Isaiah 30, Nehemiah 8 , , , 1 Comment

Get ready for the ‘M’ word!

Yes, I’m talking about mathematics.  I hope you don’t still suffer from nightmares about how dumb you might have felt in high school math class. I’m not sure which causes more shuddering among adults I meet, memories of foreign language classes or all those required math courses.

But seriously, there exists a God-given math principle which helps us understand his word.  Do you recall something called ‘the transitive property of equality’?  (I had to look up its name, but my husband and I apply it often when reading our Bibles).

I used it the other day when I came upon a favorite promise in Isaiah.  It goes like this: 

“If A=B and C = B, then A= C”

For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” But you were unwilling. Isaiah 30:15 ESV

Immediately, the Lord brought to mind Nehemiah’s encouragement to the people of God who had been standing all morning listening to the Levites explain the scriptures being read out loud. They began to weep when they understood their sin.  At that point, with all the people feeling genuine sorrow for breaking God’s law, Nehemiah stops the mourning to give them a message of peace:

Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” Nehemiah 8:10 ESV

As I read Nehemiah’s description of divine strength, the Holy Spirit connected that to the Isaiah verse, stirring up that long ago math lesson.

-If repentance/turning back to God and trusting the Almighty produce strength.

-And if believing and rejoicing in the word of God gives strength.

Then, it follows that trusting God and rejoicing in/being glad about the written Word  are two ways of saying the same thing.

Why am I drawing out this principle?

Because for some of us, our personality type keeps us from connecting with that term ‘joy’.  So, I get stuck on the word ‘rejoice’.  In my mind, I picture fans of a winning football or baseball team’s exuberant excitement. And that’s not me.

So, when I see the phrase – rejoice in the Lord, I simply use one of Strong’s synonyms for the Hebrew term rejoice – be glad.

Now THAT I can do with authenticity. Hands down, I am VERY glad to belong to God’s family and to have Jesus as my master, friend and older brother.  Nothing settles me more; nothing produces more contentment than knowing God. 

So, dear friends, if a certain verse or word doesn’t fit or connect with you, pull out that transitive property of equality and search out something that will help you understand scripture in a more meaningful way.

Are you a perfectionist?

June 16, 2022

Maria Galatians 3, Spiritual Fruit , , , Leave a comment

How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?       Galatians 3:3 NLT

As a teacher, I always had those students who were self-acclaimed perfectionists and proud of it.  Usually girls. If they came to trust me as an older mentor, I would try to have at least one conversation about the burden and futility of striving for perfection.  The way I see it, striving for perfection is a self-chosen ball and chain.

I often think about perfection on Mondays when I clean house. Showers gross me out the most.  No matter how much I would like, there is absolutely no way on earth to keep a shower as pristine as it appears when new.

I’ve learned to accept this reality and relax.  In fact, I often think of my sin like that shower stall. No matter how much I scrub the shower or my soul, I can’t eliminate sin. Knowing this fact really helps.  My rule for cleaning is always, ‘good enough’. Striving for a higher standard would eat up time I’d rather spend reading.

What does the Bible say about perfection?  Isn’t there a verse that goes, ‘Be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect’? Yes!  Matthew records Jesus in 5:48 exhorting his listeners to do that very thing.

It’s only when we look at the Greek meaning of our English word ‘perfect’, do we understand what God means. Here are two synonyms:  complete, mature.

In fact, other verses that use this word ‘teleios’ employ it to describe divine things such as:

  • ‘God’s perfect law’
  • ‘when the perfect comes’ (obliquely, referring to Jesus)
  • ‘perfect tabernacle’
  • ‘perfect gift’
  • ‘perfect love’

“Okay,” you say, “so most of the references are about God and his perfect creation and gifting.  But what are we to do about that pesky Matthew verse about being as perfect as God?” 

Look back up to what Paul told the Galatians.  He was chastising them for trying to make THEMSELVES perfect.  To the contrary, our transformation or ‘perfection’ in Christ will not come by our own effort, but through the Spirit working in us. 

Paul gives us an example or picture of the Spirit at work as he exhorts us to desire the fruits of the spirit that simply emerge as we stay connected to Jesus, our Vine.  Although we don’t see ‘perfection or completion’ among the nine qualities, I think they describe Jesus, who is perfect.

If you’re not yet convinced of the futility for striving for perfection in everyday life AND/OR in your Christian character, I’ll leave the last word to Oswald Chambers:

“The one marvelous secret of a holy life lies not in imitating Jesus, but in letting the perfections of Jesus manifest themselves in my mortal flesh. Sanctification is “Christ in you.”… Sanctification is not drawing from Jesus the power to be holy; it is drawing from Jesus the holiness that was manifested in Him, and He manifests it in me.”

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