Last night I wrote in my journal "Clearly, I am a work in progress! It seems to be two steps forward, one step back these days but progress is being made."
Early in my walk a sweet man in one of our small groups shared a favorite verse with me - "He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it." Philippians 1:6 I loved the idea that if God started something in me, He would see it through to the end. Not like me, who has been known to start a craft project and lay it aside for months or years even, only to come across it some time later and feel like an utter failure for having given it up before its completion.
Speaking of projects ... I'm nearly done with an organizing project that I hope will bring a little more order and peace to my life. For over a year our bedroom has been a repository for a lot of things that don't belong in a bedroom. Stacks of books and papers, empty suitcases, leftovers from the creation of wedding invitations - a craft project I am happy to say I finished in good time! This week I have been diligent to get everything put away in its place. After a little furniture moving, I am happy to report that the bedroom is now just that - a bedroom, nothing more or less. What a sense of accomplishment!
In the process of getting things put away and, for the most part, organized I came across several of my old journals. Since my early walk I have kept sermons notes, prayers, and the ramblings of a child of God trying to work out her salvation with fear and trembling. I started them in the days before discovering the blogosphere, which you should be mighty thankful for! It was interesting to read through some of them and realize just how faithful God has been to those things He has begun in me. In them I read some of the early insights I had from studying his word. I read prayer requests, some answered and some that I have prayed for without ceasing and haven't yet been answered. I read many joys and struggles I have had over the years, some long-forgotten and some so fresh and vivid that I was lost in the recounting of them.
What struck me the most was how the truth of one small Scripture verse was made so evident in the pages of those precious books. God is faithful to complete the works He begins in me. What encouragement for today when I look at the prayer requests I wrote a few days ago or think of my present circumstances, which don't necessarily make sense to me. How hopeful I feel knowing that the God of the universe has been and still is present and active in my life. And it even gives me hope that those projects that I've started ... and haven't finished ... aren't really failures in my life, but opportunites to take them up again and continue what I started. They are no longer unfinished projects, but works in progress, just like me!
Blessings,
Tina
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