He's Still Working on Me!

This morning, as I write this I am sitting in Chattanooga, Tennessee; getting ready to go over to Lookout Mountain for a day of R&R with the family! As a child, I remember going there with my folks and being absolutely overwhelmed by everything that I saw. Several years later, as an adult, returning there was somewhat humorous. While I still enjoy the attractions, the effect on me wasn't the same as it was when I was a small child. Everything seemed smaller, not as exciting or intriguing and definitely not as appealing. I guess you could attribute that to age, experience, maturity or all of the above. I would like to think that it's the same with life and our personal maturity. Those things that come at us when we are younger in the Lord or in the ministry, don't seem to have the same effect when we mature in certain areas...thank God! I also think that it's good for us to remember that lesson when dealing with junior associates or staff/team members. What seems to you to be a "mole hill", can be a mountain to them and they may need a little bit more understanding, patience or encouragement. Obviously, none of us have arrived at the place of maturity and growth to which God is taking us, but it's like the old saying..."I may not be where I'm going, but thank God that I'm not where I've been."

I remember an old southern gospel song that says, "He's still working on me, to make me what I ought to be." All of us are "works in progress", and in fact, I recently visited the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, North Carolina (if you haven't been there, you owe it to yourself and your ministry to take that trip) and went to the gravesite of Ruth Graham Bell. When I read the inscription "End of Construction, Thanks for your Patience.", I found it odd until I read the meaning behind it. While traveling with Dr. Graham one day, they came through a construction zone. At the end of the construction, that sign was there and Ruth commented that she wanted that on her tombstone, and that's exactly what they put on there. That speaks volumes to me and I hope to you. All of us are under construction and the job isn't quite finished. So, I'll make a deal with you...you pray for me and I'll pray for you, don't judge me and I won't judge you, have patience with me and I'll have patience with you, quickly forgive me and I'll quickly forgive you, give me some room to grow and I'll give you room to grow! In fact, let's make that a standard for all of our lives no matter who it is in regard to. Oh, one more thing that I would like to mention in this devotion...I live by the thought that from the last time I saw somebody, God has done something in their life to change them for the better. I always make room to accept them for who they have become, not for who they were.