Ruminations and Ramifications

It Was a Lot of Work

What is it about me (I'm trying not to generalize, but if you'd like to insert yourself here, feel free) that thinks that difficult things won't take hard work? And I'm thinking specifically where spiritual growth is concerned. I recognize a sinful pattern in my life, and "hope" that it will one day be gone "by the grace of God" and pray for that transformation, and in the meantime continue to indulge that sinful pattern. Then I throw up my hands in despair, or reach for Psalm 138:8 "Do not abandon the work of your hands".

I thought that architecture was hard work. I thought that grad school was grueling. The registration exams? Don't even go there. Much blood, sweat and tears were exacted by those trials. But sin? Wasn't it God who saved me? And wasn't He who would preserve me? So, isn't working a "work-based righteousness"?

No, and I keep forgetting that. It's painful to stop doing something. It's, at a minimum, uncomfortable. You know that Bob Newhart counseling video that circulates the internet? Yeah, it ought to go a little something like that: Stop It! Only with the grace of God can any change take place, any lasting change, but still it must start with "stop".

A sentence from one of Kim's posts stood out to me: "It took a lot of work." And it was as if either a light bulb went off, or I was hit by a truck. Either way, the reality was undeniable. Some things take a lot of work. So, thanks, Kim, for reminding me that these things take a lot of work, aren't to be taken lightly, and ought to be engaged with the same amount of grueling effort that I funneled toward other difficult tasks in my life.

posted by Marcian @ 11:56 AM