growing
In high school, I took an art class that included casting and sculpting. I was fascinated by the process. One day I walked in to discover a table covered in rocks. We were instructed to pick out a rock and get a chisel and file off of the tool pile. The next step was to choose a design and use the chisel to begin to shape the rock by taking off large chunks. As the rock began to take shape, we used smaller chisels and files to smooth the edges and make finer details. It was an arduous process but I was captivated.
I have understood the gospel since I was very young, but I didn’t realize how much time the growing would take. I knew that I would be changed when I turned my heart over to God. But I had this colossal expectation that my life would reflect goodness and rightness all along the way once Jesus was dwelling inside me. What I didn’t expect was the wrestling that would come with the journey. I didn’t know that sin would still be crouching at my door waiting for an opportunity to consume me. I didn’t understand that there was a growing that happens in little bits at a time. After the initial chiseling, the files would come, first corse, then finer. Then more chiseling. Then more filing. It takes time. So much time, but we are being perfected as we abide in Christ.
“Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 3:12 NASB
https://www.bible.com/bible/100/php.3.12.nasb
Amen, sister! It can be so discouraging. I feel like 2 steps forward, 1 step backward sometimes, or maybe 2 or 3 steps backward... but He is making us into beautiful if we are faithful to him. I was reading something recently about waiting on the Lord. It had me thinking of how sometimes a lot of the excitement is in the anticipation. So I'm trying to see the waiting as anticipation instead of just waiting. And now I will try to see the hard times as chiseling and filing instead of just suffering.
ReplyDeleteThat’s so good! I tell my kids to enjoy the ride all the time, but when it’s my turn to wait, there’s a lot of “hurry up” in me. Such a great perspective!
Delete