Works in Progress

Striving Toward God

A work in progress—that’s what we all can claim. We are being refined each day. Hopefully, we are getting closer and closer to God. In the writing world, a work in progress is a piece that one is working on. When you start and when you are in the middle of writing, you know it will still have a lot of editing before the final draft.

In a recent book I read, the author thanks his editor and says she “dropped everything to turn my abysmal first draft into the story I’d hoped for, in the process paring forty thousand words, none of which will ever be missed.” It’s a well written book by a bestselling author. Hard to imagine they cut out 40,000 words! (For reference, we aim for our articles in the E-Bulletin to be around 500-700 words. Some are longer )

As Christians, our aim in our life story should be to further our relationship with God. This involves spending time with Him in prayer, reading His Word, and attending church services so that we get to know Him more deeply. As in writing, this process can be difficult. Sometimes we are on the right track — other times, not so much. We are stuck in run-on sentences, poor punctuation, misspellings, way too many sentences, unclear statements and sometimes things are very much out of order! However, we can fix them by turning direction and amending our ways. Of course, it’s not so simple to cut, paste and delete in real life. But, it is possible to change our ways, slowly but surely.

Learning from Paul’s Example

Why did I quote Paul in his letter to the Philippians above? Because each one of us is progressing on our individual pathways in life and our relationship with God. And, like Paul, we must press on even when things are difficult.  As Christians, we want to follow God and live according to His precepts. We want to grow closer to Him, love Him, and be a good representative of Him. However, I know I often fail. 

 Our life stories are also full of so much goodness that doesn’t need editing. We only have to look and we will find the jewels in our lives. It may help to focus on the good parts of our stories as we continue pressing onward. Part of pressing on can include editing, or rectifying, those issues in our life that need addressing.  If Paul, such a man of God, struggled, it goes without saying that we will have struggles.

Our Life Story: An Epic Novel of Faith

By the way, have I mentioned how much time is spent writing and then editing an article for the E-Bulletin? I haven’t tallied the hours but there are many! These are just small articles. Our lives are a much higher word count. Our life, as a work in progress, is an epic novel.  Take heart, continue on persevering, knowing that the love of God encircles you.

The Bible is full of encouragement to us in the Psalms and the New Testament Gospels and Epistles. Here’s one of Paul’s prayers given to the Philippians, and to us. Paul knows that God will continue to perfect them and those who follow in their footsteps: us.

In His Love,

Paisia

Originally published in the Holy Apostles E-bulletin. Subscribe here.