Work In Progress

This is a blog I wrote in May 2010

I’ve just got back from holiday. When we first got there, and we got into our room at the hotel, we pulled back the curtains, stepped out onto the balcony and were faced with a view of a partly erected building. It looked quite ugly.  In fact it was so ugly, we kept the curtains closed for the whole week and never sat out on the balcony once.  Due to the “credit crunch” there were quite a lot of these partly-built buildings on the island, and all work seemed to have stopped on them.
As I was reading and meditating one afternoon, I suddenly realised that I am a bit like that building outside our room – I’m a work-in-progress. I’ve often said to non-believers when faced with comments about some mistake I’ve made, that I’m not perfect, I’m a work in progress. I’m being sculpted by the Master Potter, being built into Christ. This is true – none of us is perfect, only Jesus.
But what happens when work stops? What happens when life’s tough times “stop work”? If I’m not letting the Builder actually work on me, I’m just like that building – ugly, and of no use to anyone.
Each one of us is at a different stage in our Christian lives, but when I look back, I can see times in my life when I’ve let the cares of this world cause me to drift away and I’ve stopped the Builder from working in me.  Those are the times when I should have stayed close to His heart, as it’s often in our most testing times that He can do the most work on us.  When we’re at our lowest, when we come to the end of ourselves and we are weak in human strength, then God’s strength abounds:  2 Cor 12 v 10 “for when I am weak [ in human strength], then am I [truly] strong (able, powerful in divine strength).”
When life’s all nice and pleasant and everything’s going well, it’s easy to be close to God. It’s easy to read the Word and pray and praise. But when the bills are piling up, and when work’s tough, or things in your family life’s not great, or when that symptom in your body appears, suddenly these things are bigger than the Word. Praising and thanksgiving are suddenly hard to do. As your focus comes off God, onto the situation, it can be difficult to get it shifted back.  But Paul says it’s God grace and strength we should be using, not our own. In fact, Paul welcomed trials and hard times, for he could rest in God all the more: (2 Cor 2 v 9)  “My grace (My favour and loving-kindness and mercy) is enough for you [sufficient against any danger and enables you to bear the trouble manfully]; for My strength and power are made perfect (fulfilled and completed) and show themselves most effective in [your] weakness. Therefore, I will all the more gladly glory in my weaknesses and infirmities, that the strength and power of Christ (the Messiah) may rest (yes, may pitch a tent over and dwell) upon me!”
It’s comforting to know even Paul had weaknesses and faced things that he just couldn’t cope with on his own. Paul wasn’t perfect, he too was a work in progress. But Paul drew close to God when troubles came, and allowed himself to be moulded by the Master Potter ( Isaiah 64 v 8 “We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand”).  Everyday I pray that a little less of me remains, and a little more of Jesus shines through in me. When the next trial comes, draw close to Him; allow His strength and peace to surround you and lift you up. Praise Him with a joyful heart, knowing His grace is sufficient for you, and allow Him to work in you, to mould and shape you more like His wonderful Son.