This Is Not the End, But It Is the Road

Reading the Letter, Thomas Bennington Kensington, 1884

This encouragement came through the mail yesterday, but was just opened today, on such a morning as I needed it most. Part of a bulk mailing, but a balm to my spirit as I've felt my shortcomings weighing heavily the past couple of days. I share it in hopes that perhaps it will be a balm to your own spirit as well. Keep looking heavenward and homeward, dear one.

This life, therefore, is not righteousness but growth in righteousness, not health but healing, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be but we are growing toward it. The process is not yet finished but it is going on. This is not the end but it is the road. All does not yet gleam in glory but all is being purified. ~ Martin Luther

Making Amends

I spent some time today hand quilting. I've got four kaleidoscopes finished, doing a petal design in each section. Hand quilting is much slower, of course, but I find it much more relaxing and controllable than quilting with my home sewing machine. Now if I had a long arm machine.... :-)

I took the top to my local quilt shop a couple of days ago to match some border and backing fabric, and whenever anyone brings a quilt top in or a quilt gets picked up after being quilted, there's always show and tell. So some gals were looking at my kaleidoscope top, and as we all do when we see a quilt, they oohed and ahhed. Then one of the gals said something like, "I see you got all of your points matched; no, there's a couple there you missed." Well, of course, that was a little deflating, and I thought a bit tacky to say!

I was going to start the quilting yesterday, but as I thought about the comment, I was back and forth with, "I'm not stuck on it being perfect," but "I could take the time to make the correction, but "I didn't think it was that noticeable," but "now I see it right away myself whenever I look at it." Argh!! So I got to thinking that if she noticed it right away, that it was probably more noticeable than I thought.

So, I decided to fix the mis-matches and then found a hole in one of the pieces where I'd apparently torn it with the seam ripper. So I had to replace that piece in the middle of the quilt before I could get started. Actually, it turned out to be a good thing that I was reworking a row or I wouldn't have noticed the hole until I came to it for quilting, which would be a lot more work. And if it had gone unnoticed, at the first washing it would certainly have made itself known.

The comment and subsequent fix got me to thinking how much like that I am with some of my own weaknesses. Especially when one is pointed out to me, and I have that deflated, defensive response. I struggle with amending my ways because I think they're not so noticeable. To me, they aren't. To others they may be.

We're often blind to our own weaknesses, and it's really to our benefit to have them pointed out.

Hopefully, though, not in a tacky way.

Sunday Ponderings ~ A Thorn Among the Roses

I’ve been a follower of Jesus Christ for many, many years, and God continues to transform me through His Word. Over and again there’s that aha! moment, and I wonder why I didn’t see it like that before. I may be a slow learner, but I’m also thankful that God doesn’t show me everything about myself at once. I would be overwhelmed and probably want to give up. God doesn’t want that. He wants me to have hope that I can and will change into the likeness of His Son, eventually.

 

Why is it that I can’t shake off a certain nagging reminder of a particular weakness? I think it’s gone, then there it is again—like a tiny thorn in the flesh that’s not always visible, that’s not always ‘feelable’, but touched in just a certain way, I’m reminded that it’s still there. Very much there, and very, very bothersome.

II Corinthians 12:7-10—So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 

A thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan. Satan—he wanted Paul discouraged, and he wants me discouraged and reminded of my particular weakness. My flesh—my own inclinations and desires. A thorn—generally found in that which has benefit or beauty. I think of thorns among the roses. God has blessed me with a grandiflora of roses along life's way, but by human nature there are also thorns that keep reminding me to be careful among the blessings and benefits of life. 

Why? For one reason, as Paul said, it's to keep us from becoming conceited. Being a doer kind of person, I can very easily forget that the reason for the roses is God’s doing and not my own. Not only is it often difficult (most often difficult) for me to handle adversities or offenses, it’s also difficult for me to handle blessings (the roses) because I tend to use them for beautifying my own vista. More specifically, the thought I’ve been mulling over is that God wants to keep me from crediting myself with the presence of the blessing.

God wants me to show and give all glory to Him, not to myself. I hope (and where would we be without hope? That's what Satan wants to discourage.) that the next time that prickly thorn reminds me of my weakness that I’ll be content in knowing that God is wanting to keep me from being conceited—so that I can show His strength and His glory through my weakness; none of me. He wants me to be merely an instrument in His hands.

II Corinthians 12:7-10—So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Painting ~ Watering the Garden 1912, Daniel Ridgway Knight 1839-1924

Wikimedia Commons public domain