Work in Progress

It's been a strange few days. For some reason, I've been more out of sorts than usual--irritable, short-tempered, whatever you want to call it. These are the times I can relate best to Paul's writings: "For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing." Romans 7:19

So many well-meaning people wrongly present the Christian life as a Norman Rockwell fairy tell: sign here, and all your troubles are over. In reality, acceptance of Truth is more akin to enlisting--every day means more training, more challenges, and the occasional battle that seems hopeless. And when we fail, the Accuser is always there to try to make the most of rubbing salt in the wound. When the Bible talks about reforming our character, the process is never described as an antiseptic, academic exercise. No, it talks about refiner's fire, the melting of dross, the sharpening of iron on iron. But we have this hope:

"I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I wish to be. I am not what I hope to be. Yet I can truly say I am not what I once was. By the grace of God I am what I am." -- John Newton