Wet cement, orange cones, and steel framing. Under construction. Sound familiar? In my community it is all too familiar. Especially on the expressways. I'm sure that it is not just here. Everything is constantly growing, expanding, improving. Everywhere people want to look better, update, and, well, grow.
The world understands the need for improving on a regular basis. So why then, do we as christians not always see the need for improvement in our spirit? I believe it may not always be that we do not see, but that we will not take the time needed for improvement. Improving takes time and effort. No building ever remodeled itself. We have the tools and the ability so we have no excuses. God wants us to continue growing in the knowledge, and likeness, of Him. He has given us directions and blueprint all in the same book.
I know all too well the struggle to continue building. It is easy to slack off, to go through the motions without actually working. There are also setbacks. Sometimes the work is still fresh when something bumps us. Remember, it can always be repaired. A couple years ago my mom was out with my grandma. They had stopped to pick up some medication and on the way into the pharmacy my grandma stepped in a square of wet cement on the sidewalk. She hadn't seen it. The workman laughed and smoothed it back out. On her way back out of the pharmacy she nearly stepped in it again. The workman, I'm sure, tensed as her foot hovered over his resmoothed cement, but when she turned and placed it on the sidewalk he laughed at the near misstep. Sometimes in life we are like that workman and the wet cement is the part of us that God is improving. Something may come along and accidentaly step on us. When that happens we just have to smooth it back out again. True, if the same person did it twice, it is harder to laugh about. Even if it takes a few times, it will eventually harden and become a permanent part. I'm sure that sidewalk did eventually dry and others can now walk on it freely. However, it will now begin the process of wear and tear that will break it down. Thats why we must always be working. We must keep up what God has built in us.
I am still a work in progress. There is still so much for me to improve in my own life. God has been working in me. As long as I allow God to continue working I will continue to improve. There have been setbacks but with God I got through them. With God in charge, sometimes things even turn out better the second time.
