Are We Done Yet?
Why haven’t I learned this lesson yet?
Why don’t I trust God more?
Why do I still try to control things I cannot control?
These are some of the questions my friends and I were discussing after dinner. Each of us had areas of our hearts and lives we asked these questions about. Where we felt unfinished, slow learners, weak, or simply discouraged.
Why can’t we finally learn and move on???
I bet you can easily think of an area in your life where you feel this way too.
Do we have to climb more?
I’ve been pondering this.
We all have unfinished and unredeemed places in our hearts. Struggles that seem to play on repeat, year after year, even decade after decade.
What is wrong with me?
Why do I never seem to learn?
These are the natural questions arising around these challenges. But…
What if we are looking at it all wrong?
What if we could see from another angle?
What are we focusing on?
Maybe these are areas where there is no finish line, but rather the continuous growth and expansion of the life of God in us. Areas to hone and refine throughout our lives here on earth, a continuous loop of even more. Areas to serve as a reminder of our ongoing transformation into the image of Christ. We will never reach the end of that here in this fallen world.
Just like there is always more of God to discover, so too, there is always more transformation we can experience.
What’s around the next bend?
Maybe, rather than feeling discouraged or down about these areas, like we haven’t yet learned our lesson, we can be excited and expectant about the possibilities of even more of God being poured into us and even more freedom and life being expanded in our hearts and minds.
We get to trust God even more.
We get to learn and grow even more.
We get to be amazed at God even more.
We get to tell even more stories about how God is working in us, and through us, and in spite of us.
We get to turn away from even more sin.
We get to turn toward even more life and freedom.
We get to love God even more.
We get to love people even more.
We get to obey God even more.
More and more chances to stay in step with the Spirit.
More and more ways to become like Jesus.
More and more times to hear God’s voice.
There’s even more to discover than we ever imagined.
We can come closer still than we’ve ever been.
“And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image withever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”
2 Corinthians 3:18 NIV [emphasis mine]
The ESV says, “from one degree of glory to another.” [again, emphasis mine]
How glorious can my life with God become?
A perspective shift from
“I have not yet learned my lesson” to
“I am reaching another degree of glory and transformation!”
Expansion. Increasing glory. Even more.
How about you?
In what area of your life would this perspective shift be encouraging?
