Something strange happened recently. A man from Iran, dubbed the “world’s dirtiest man,” died after taking a bath. Amou Haji was ninety-four upon his death. He had gone without bathing himself for sixty years. Haji was afraid he would get sick if he used soap and water. His prediction unfortunately was correct.

     Ironically, a group of physicians from Tehran had evaluated Haji earlier this year and deemed him healthy. In Haji’s case, the old adage was substantiated. Cleanliness did draw him into the presence of godliness.

     In many instances, radical change can prove deadly. For Haji, the immediate elimination of bacteria to which his body had grown accustomed proved fatal. The same standard is true in the spiritual realm.

     I often have wondered why God allows us to struggle with certain habits and hang ups. If God longs for us to live lives of purity and holiness, why doesn’t He eliminate these sticky sins instantaneously? Why is God so slow in making us like Him?

     Perhaps you can relate to these questions. You have wrestled for years with persistent issues of impatience, anger, lust, gluttony, or anorexia. Yet none of these vices seem to be going away soon.

     Paul the Apostle struggled with his own defects of character. He couldn’t understand why he continued doing the very things he knew he should not be doing. However, Paul reached a conclusion he shared later in his life: “We are being transformed into that same image from one degree of glory to the next degree of glory. This comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18, CEB).

     In short, God is changing us little by little. Change for the most part does not occur overnight. It is an  incremental process. Like removing a deep scratch on the surface of a vehicle, rubbing too hard will damage the paint. Gentle buffing over a stretch of time is necessary to eliminate the blemish yet preserve the finish.

     Even more, God’s goal isn’t only to make us better people. God longs for us to lean upon Him for grace. His hope is that we might treasure our relationship with Him more and more, while depending upon Him for everything in life.