A Personal Re-Write

Today I spent some time re-writng a poem which never got off the ground. Though the lines seemed to have some possibilities, they never passed the personal quality control manager who put them into ink.  Back and forth and up and down the words went, but still they never seemed to fit.  I was tempted a time or two to give it up and push the delete icon which would have resolved my dilemma forever; however, the images and the hope which birthed them would not let me make such a drastic move.  So, at the end of the hour, I left the printed words scattered across the white space of the page for another day.    

At the end of the writing session I remembered a saying that made the rounds some time ago which told us, "God is not through with me yet."  I am glad such is true.  I am not sure what my writing dilemma is called, but I know what God's incomplete work with me is called.  John Wesley spoke of it as sanctification.  Sanctification is such a scary word for most of us who seek to understand how God works in our life.  We are tempted to think it refers to some advanced degree of sainthood when it actually speaks of the way the Holy Spirit seeks permission to work miracles of grace in our life.  

The miracle speaks of a deep awareness of holy presence and an inner desire to live under the authority of the Spirit who seeks to transform our heart so that it bears a resemblance to the heart of Christ.  At one time long ago, I thought of sanctification as a completed event which was good for the duration of life, but later came to realize it was not about an event but about a life, not about something accomplished but about something in progress.  When we hear the word it enables us to remember that God is still out there bringing together what is scattered and out of sync into an inner wholeness which makes our heart fit for the Kingdom to which He leads us.