God's Work In Progress

I dread the signs that tell me road work is in progress. Yes, it is for my own good and those working that I slow down and take a look at what is going on. However, it usually slows me from getting to my intended destination

The last month or so, I've been pondering these road signs in my Christian life. There have probably been signs before this but none that got my attention the way the last few have. Perhaps, if I had been as sensitive to those spiritual road signs as I am cautious about physical road work signs I wouldn't be in the spot I'm in right now.

Recently, I met with one of the leaders at church and we talked about my helping him with some things. We had talked about it several months ago but decided to wait until last month and pray about it and such. I think we were both excited about the help I might give him. We met and I carried out my first little assignment and then we were scheduled to meet again. This meeting did not go at all as I had thought it would. There had been some discussion on the leadership council and they nixed the idea of me being his assistant at this time. There are some areas they want me to look at in my life.

I was crushed, hurt, humiliated.

Feeling as if I had been bitten, I bit back. "What about so and so? Why is he allowed such a public leadership role when it is the same issue and I cannot make copies for you? Why the double standard? And what about ___________?" I had a list ready in an instant.

But they weren't the issue at hand.

I was.

I've hated every minute of it. But slowly I am coming to the conclusion that it doesn't matter (even if it doesn't seem fair to me) what the standard is. God is asking me to look at an area or two. Ephesians 4:12-24 puts it this way:

Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

This reminds me of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader from the Chronicles of Narnia. In it we are introduced to Eustace. He is a cousin of the children. When Edmund and Lucy get pulled back into Narnia, Eustace gets pulled in as well. You quickly discover that he is an absolutely beastly boy -- mean, arrogant, selfish. At one point, an enchantment turns him into a dragon.

To become "disenchanted" Aslan tells him to go into a pond. But before he can go in, Aslan tells him that he must undress. Eustace correctly determines that he must shed his skin. He does this, but as soon as he does, another dragon skin appears. Aslan says that he, Aslan, must help him. Though it is very painful Eustace lets Alsan sink his claws in and peel off every inch of the dragon skin. It is so like the help we need from Jesus to shed our old selves and be made new!

At the end of the chapter, Lewis writes the following:

It would be nice and fairly true, to say that from that time forth Eustace was a different boy. To be strictly accurate, he began to be a different boy. He had relapses. There were still many days when he could be very tiresome. But most of those I shall not notice. The cure had begun.

These great words can apply to our lives as Christians. We are beginning to be different as God strips us clean. But like Eustace, we may have relapses and days when we are tiresome. But God knows that is not that end of the story. Hopefully those around us give grace because they know the cure has begun and we are in the process of becoming.

But I am a work in progress and must own up to my short falls.

How thankful I am that I am God's work in progress! He will not abandon me half way done.

What areas is God calling you to make progress in?

In what areas do you need to give grace to others because they are under construction?

God's Work In Progress,

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