“More, Savior, like thee.” (“More Holiness Give Me”, Phillip Paul Bliss). It has been a pleasure and an enriching experience these last few weeks as I have studied the hymn “More Holiness Give Me” and have deepened my understanding and appreciation of my Savior and His gospel and how I can change for the better by asking for and receiving His grace in my life. The wonderful thing about Jesus Christ is that the more that we seek to know and become like Him, the more that our desire and our capacity to continue to do so increases. As we truly humble ourselves and set aside our own insecurities and expectations, we begin to view the ever widening gap between ourselves and the Savior not as some kind of hopeless, unwinnable, Sisyphean exercise in futility and instead as a never-ending but always meaningful and rewarding adventure. The fact that the more we become like our Savior only opens our minds to see more clearly that His own everythingness and our own nothingness does not change the fact that each day we are growing and improving and leaving farther and farther behind the version of ourselves that was less like our Savior. Striving to become perfect, even as Jesus Christ is perfect, is an act of faith. Faith leads to knowledge. Knowledge leads to a deeper sensitivity to our own ignorance. Which puts us right back in the realm of faith. We become a little better, and then we see a little more clearly our flaws and imperfections, and then we become a little better, and then we see a little more clearly. Becoming like our Savior is a good first step, so long as we follow it up with becoming more like our Savior, and then even more like Him. If we truly did this every day of our lives, and then every day after that for the rest of eternity, even if we got closer and closer but never quite reached His level, nevertheless, we would still become the best possible version of ourselves.
