A popular saying holds that it is through pain that humans achieve anything. “No pain, no gain”. A less popular saying proposes that God will have nothing short of exponential growth in the spiritual life of those he enlightens. “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.” (John 15:2, NASB)

Change is good vs traditions are inviolable

The more a person changes the more people think one is just dust in the wind. So we look for stability, even strict adherence to culture, religion, political affiliation and even family heritage. It is not entirely clear to me that changing often is a sign of perfection, but it must be true that the best examples of change only happen in nonhuman species. The caterpillar changes once, and the change is spectacular. Its perfection is not repeated. So let me propose that it is not repeated change that shows perfection. It is the dramatic change that we all expect and are usually incapable of manipulating that shows perfection.

Spectacular change expectations

24) Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25) He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.

John 12:24-25, NASB

35) But someone will say, “How are the dead raised? And with what kind of body do they come?” 36) You fool! That which you sow does not come to life unless it dies;

1 Corinthians 15:35-36, NASB

We are not in control of perfection: it happens to us. Otherwise, we would be metamorphic practically every time we think we need a shift in our circumstances. Quite literally, hundreds of little changes are presented to us repeatedly, and we ignore them at our peril of stunted growth or stagnation. However, if you change your orientation often it is more likely that you are an example of imperfection than of perfection.