Phil 3:12

   I'm not perfect, but working on it. This is an interesting theme in the Christian life. We who make great progress, and have received the righteousness of Christ, are tempted to think we have attained perfection. I have been tempted by this lately, and it only takes a moment of honestly looking at my goal and role model, namely Jesus himself, to see that I have a long way to go.
   Why be tempted into such foolishness in the first place? It is too obvious I am not perfect. But whenever the Lord grows that sapling of heaven within me, and a new fruit forms, I am overwhelmed by it. They aren't even ripe fruits, I'm just a frail thing that the Lord is sheltering. Yet the glory of His presence is so marvelous in comparison to my old life, that I feel invincible.
   However, like it says in Philippians 3:13

"Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead"

   Here is a great joy, and what has been a mystery to some. That to be perfect in Christ is not a thing to be grasped but is accomplished in the act of reaching forward. And he says so much in the very next verse.

"I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus"

   He describes the prize as "the upward call." And indeed it is a prize, because the joy of this calling and responding, this reaching and taking hold, is a joy of movement. Heaven is an eternal progression, it never gets old, and we continually experience the thrill of becoming ever more intimate with loves and truths, and indeed our True Love. Rejoice for the kingdom is within reach!