When was the last time you had a conversation with someone you care about and you know disagrees with you on something important? (Facebook doesn’t count.) Take a moment and truly think about the last time you had a healthy dialogue of disagreement with someone you love. What was it about? How did it end? Was it with another Christian? How did everyone walk away feeling?

Finding ourselves in the midst of our first significant transition, it seems fitting to write a more personal weekly truth. This past week I announced my transition out of leadership of the Bible studies and I wanted to share how God has shown His faithfulness.

He erupted into the world—encapsulated Himself in flesh and blood, subjected Himself to time in order to live the perfect life for us, so that… He could obliterate the bounds of time and flesh and meet us Spirit to spirit, dwell in and among each of us forever and always. Paul’s explanation of what the Holy Spirit means for us overwhelms me when I hold it up against the feelings of inadequacy I have as a mother to be everything to my children.

Paul’s entire mission in writing the letter to the Galatians was to plead with them to understand that for those of us who believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, we are as Christian as we will ever get. Redeemed. Paid for by the blood of the Son of the Living God. Period. We can’t do anything to be more righteous. There are no customs we can follow, no actions we can take to make us more qualified to come before God. Jesus Christ alone qualifies us for everything.

Peter, the first to declare Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, begins to see Jesus draw crowds by the thousands. At some point in the three years of following Jesus, Peter becomes aware that he is one of the twelve closest friends of the King of the Jews, the Man who has come to set all things straight, the One who will not just set up a kingdom here on earth, but will bring peace to all nations and will rule the entire world in peace and righteousness. Peter lives and works alongside Jesus for three years. He doesn’t just have a good thing going—it seems he has reached the pinnacle of his ministry. Imagine Peter’s horror watching Jesus hang on a cross and breathe his last breath.