Can Farther Equal Closer?

"The closer I come to Christ, the more I realize how much I am unlike Him..."

When I reflect upon my life as a Christ follower, I often ask myself the question, "Do I really think that I'm making any progress?" I look back with guilt a lot of the time because I feel like I'm farther away from being like Christ, not closer... obviously that's not the direction in which we were meant to go.

But I recently heard someone say the above quote, and it really got me thinking. Just because I feel like I don't look very much like Jesus doesn't necessarily mean that I'm not growing and changing in positive ways. The comparison was made to looking at two mountains in the distance. They may look quite similar from afar, but as you get closer, you notice the differences and dissimilarities.

The same goes for us. From far off, I thought I looked a lot like Jesus already. But as I get closer, I recognize some key differences: my unwillingness to surrender my own will to the Father's plan, my arrogance and pride, and the heart motivations for why I do what I do (even when my actions are good). Those are dissimilarities I don't think I ever detected when I first started on the journey.

I'm learning that areas I see for growth don't necessarily mean that I am far from God. Sometimes, the exact opposite is the case; it indicates that I'm coming closer, and have the clarity to begin seeing the differences that you can only see by drawing close and coming to know and love the person of Jesus Christ.