you will find similar sign whenever you're passing a building construction, a road construction, a website construction and everything in construction :D
WORK IN PROGRESS
what does it mean by work in progress? it means that there is a work that is still going on. a progress itself talks about movement, improvement, growth, to increase and to advance toward a higher or better stage. for example, you cannot build a house instantly, you will need to do a series of stages to do it and each stage is worked on after the previous stage is done, it's a step by step process.
LIFE is pretty much the same. We will continue to grow until the day we die, not just physically but we grow in our character, we grow in our emotions and we grow in our spiritual life as well. We grow in stages, step by step, falling and getting up again, making mistakes and learning from them. Thus, LIFE is WORK IN PROGRESS :)
in the Bible, God speaks a lot about spiritual growth. He speaks about being a growing spiritual infant into a mature man of Christ. yes, even when you have received Christ as your savior, growth doesn't happen instantly. it doesn't happen just over night just like a baby doesn't grow into an adult in an instant. again, it's a work in progress.
i have learned a lot in the past 3 years that GRACE is required for everyone during the work in progress. GRACE is required not only for those who are growing but also for those who have gone a little bit farther. this has to do with PRIDE.
i am a PROUD person. sometimes i love to be told that i am right. sometimes i love to be the one who's RIGHT. spare the arguments. i can be such a headstrong. i am not ashamed to admit it, because that's the fact. it's not a good thing and it's also my downfall. at times, i would think that i am more right than the other person, that i know better, that i THINK i am better in any way.
HAPPY or NOT HAPPY. i was totally wrong. i thought by having better thoughts, better theories or better knowledge i was indeed BETTER. nope. i wasn't. in fact i drew farther from God, i drew away from the people i used to know. not nice. i know :) - until i did a little reflection and reading some post about GRACE from my friend's blog (here) i know that i've been lacking of grace. towards other people and sometimes even towards myself. i know that at times i've been so demanding, i expect other people to fulfill a certain standard and if they don't, i tend to look down on them. i felt like i was better and more right than them. when in fact, i'm not. i've been dealing with some issues that are challenging and that time, i know that i am not always right. that i have been taking a lot things for granted.
when i stood there in the midst of the mess. regretting everything i've done. humiliated. sad. confused and lonely. that's when God came and told me that, after all, He still wants me, because He knows that i am a work in progress. i don't come clean and perfect. i am full of dirt and flaws. yet, He knows, i am in a process of getting better. GRACE is a gift given to the undeserving. i know that i don't deserve anything from God, yet His grace is covering me, enabling me to receive everything from God including His love and the same grace is the thing that i should also give to other people.
just like a building construction, things might look so ugly, dusty, things are scattered everywhere and it's so hard to imagine that it will a great building. it's the same with people, no one is perfect, everyone is a work in progress. it might look ugly and it might be so hard to even love them sometimes, but well, be gracious anyway because everyone has their own battle, their own struggle and their own work in progress. A might be impatient, B might be forgetful, C might be reckless, D might be the biggest liar, E might be the most selfish person on earth and you could be the one with the worst flaw. Thus, be gracious towards one another. help one another to improve for the better, confront you friends if they have done something wrong, yet confront them out of love not with self-righteousness. be a little kinder than necessary and be gracious - that's what i learned ;)
LIFE is pretty much the same. We will continue to grow until the day we die, not just physically but we grow in our character, we grow in our emotions and we grow in our spiritual life as well. We grow in stages, step by step, falling and getting up again, making mistakes and learning from them. Thus, LIFE is WORK IN PROGRESS :)
in the Bible, God speaks a lot about spiritual growth. He speaks about being a growing spiritual infant into a mature man of Christ. yes, even when you have received Christ as your savior, growth doesn't happen instantly. it doesn't happen just over night just like a baby doesn't grow into an adult in an instant. again, it's a work in progress.
i have learned a lot in the past 3 years that GRACE is required for everyone during the work in progress. GRACE is required not only for those who are growing but also for those who have gone a little bit farther. this has to do with PRIDE.
i am a PROUD person. sometimes i love to be told that i am right. sometimes i love to be the one who's RIGHT. spare the arguments. i can be such a headstrong. i am not ashamed to admit it, because that's the fact. it's not a good thing and it's also my downfall. at times, i would think that i am more right than the other person, that i know better, that i THINK i am better in any way.
HAPPY or NOT HAPPY. i was totally wrong. i thought by having better thoughts, better theories or better knowledge i was indeed BETTER. nope. i wasn't. in fact i drew farther from God, i drew away from the people i used to know. not nice. i know :) - until i did a little reflection and reading some post about GRACE from my friend's blog (here) i know that i've been lacking of grace. towards other people and sometimes even towards myself. i know that at times i've been so demanding, i expect other people to fulfill a certain standard and if they don't, i tend to look down on them. i felt like i was better and more right than them. when in fact, i'm not. i've been dealing with some issues that are challenging and that time, i know that i am not always right. that i have been taking a lot things for granted.
when i stood there in the midst of the mess. regretting everything i've done. humiliated. sad. confused and lonely. that's when God came and told me that, after all, He still wants me, because He knows that i am a work in progress. i don't come clean and perfect. i am full of dirt and flaws. yet, He knows, i am in a process of getting better. GRACE is a gift given to the undeserving. i know that i don't deserve anything from God, yet His grace is covering me, enabling me to receive everything from God including His love and the same grace is the thing that i should also give to other people.
just like a building construction, things might look so ugly, dusty, things are scattered everywhere and it's so hard to imagine that it will a great building. it's the same with people, no one is perfect, everyone is a work in progress. it might look ugly and it might be so hard to even love them sometimes, but well, be gracious anyway because everyone has their own battle, their own struggle and their own work in progress. A might be impatient, B might be forgetful, C might be reckless, D might be the biggest liar, E might be the most selfish person on earth and you could be the one with the worst flaw. Thus, be gracious towards one another. help one another to improve for the better, confront you friends if they have done something wrong, yet confront them out of love not with self-righteousness. be a little kinder than necessary and be gracious - that's what i learned ;)
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