Still in the Making

I used to think Christlikeness meant perfection... getting everything right, reacting without failure, never circling back to the same struggle twice. But that idea slowly starts to collapse under real life. Because real life keeps exposing what’s still unfinished in me.

Now I see it differently. Christlikeness isn’t the absence of failure but it’s what I do in the middle of it. It's the honesty that doesn’t hide when I miss the mark. It's freeing when you can realize Jesus never measured his followers by flawless performance. He met them in process. Peter still spoke too quickly and failed under pressure. The disciples still misunderstood him, reacted emotionally, doubted. And yet he stayed with them, transforming them over time instead of discarding them for not arriving instantly. Jesus didn’t call people who had it all together. He called people in process.

That realization changes how I understand my own struggle. When I fall short, it doesn’t have to mean I’ve stepped outside of God’s work. It can mean I’m still inside it. Christlikeness is becoming someone who no longer runs from God after failure, but runs toward him with it. Someone who learns, slowly, that conviction is not rejection but an invitation. Maybe maturity in Christ isn’t “I never struggle anymore.” Maybe it’s “I don’t stay away anymore.” And over time, even the places where I feel weakest begin to become places where I learn dependence instead of shame.

-Tiffany Fernadez