I read an interview recently of
a famous actress, and during the interview she mentioned that the general
public is far more concerned with “embracing the image over the artistry”. Per usual, this took me off into a massive
brainstorm about all of the areas of life in which we are consumed by what I
would describe as the product rather than the process, or our expectations over His
creation. It seems that when we are
reminded or initially informed about the promises of God, whether it is during our
time of prayer or in the written Word of God, we get fixated on making it to the
“promised land.” There is an immediate
push to get "there" quickly, without any of life’s inconvenient
postponements. Oftentimes I have found
that I will linger on my shortcomings, because I view them as a delay of my
promise rather than a teaching tool or an indispensable part of my
formation. I have been taught for many
years to praise God in advance, and to be in expectation of all that He has for
me, yet, I must have missed the instruction on how to enjoy and praise God for
His process while I am still presently in it.
When I think about viewing a life from God’s perspective, I can imagine
that He takes great pleasure in watching every segment of our life’s
progression and potential growth.
Inasmuch as He knows the end from the beginning, it must certainly be
gratifying for Him to recognize his handiwork as we live out our
purpose. Paul touches on this in Romans
when he wrote “…all things work together for good...”(Rom. 8:28) Whenever I read this scripture in times past,
I got excited about the good and didn’t spend adequate time thinking about the
“working together” part. Our relationship
with God has already been set up for greatness. We know that we have an
eternity spent with Him to look forward to.
The church has done a great job in recent years of moving from a focus
on the great "by and by" and retooling our minds to look for the promise of God
right here on earth (cue the background music for “Heaven on Earth”). I am simply saying, let’s take this thing a
step further and really acknowledge the fact that today, in fact this very
moment, is all a part of my promise!
Easier said than done, yes, but I submit that this will not be an
additional burden in our lives, but will prompt many believers to a level of
freedom and “abundant life” that for a time has only been an ideal found in the
pages of John’s gospel. (John 10:10)
For example, the accident
that produced excruciating pain in my body, formed an increased level of
sensitivity (on top of what I thought I had) to not only sympathize but
identify and speak directly to the pain in someone else’s life. Now most critical minds would rebuff this
thought by saying, “Meghan, why in the
world would God have to inflict pain in order to change your mindset, couldn’t
he just do it during your time of prayer or better yet just change your mind on
His own?” Well, I must admit that I would
have responded to my thesis in like manner, but thank God, I now understand that
this is the way that the Lord allows us to actively participate in our own
development. It is still our choice to
become better! I shared this truth with
a family member of mine. After some time passed, they sent me a text message
saying that they are actively working on enjoying the process! It was so poignant the way they described
life before making the decision to extol the process more than
the promise. “It was like I was
holding my breath waiting for something to happen and it already is!” Can I encourage you today by reminding you
that God’s hand is presently on your life and he wants to actively engage with you on the way to your next victory!
There must be a decision made to consistently acknowledge and appreciation God's creative work in our lives. I challenge each of us to
think about all of the ways that we have lessened the value
of where we are presently, and begin to praise God for
the process over the final product!
