I have been doing some projects in my yard lately. Specifically, relaying an existing brick patio in my backyard. This is the first of several phases to getting my yard in order. I am the first to admit that I am not crazy about doing landscaping. I love the payoff at the end, but I don’t particularly enjoy getting there, and as with most projects that I tackle, it seems to always become a bigger process than I anticipate in the beginning.
If you don’t know, brick/rock work is quite labor intensive so you don’t want to have to redo any part of the process. This should be good incentive to plan well. However, even planning well doesn’t guarantee the absence of problems. Recently, a friend was telling me about his experience doing a brick patio. As they were correcting some leveling issues, the guy working with him told him that, growing up, his dad would always tell him to not get in a hurry, and to “Enjoy the process”. That really resonated with me, because more times than not, I don’t. I get frustrated that there is a process. I want to fast forward to the end, see the finished work, and hear the praise of others that are impressed.
Are we really supposed to enjoy the process? If I am doing something I like, such as, drumming or woodworking, something creative; I do enjoy the process. There is something satisfying about the tedious steps in building a piece of furniture. The need for it, the service or function it will have, the look of it, the actual construction of it, and finally the use of it. With drums, I love developing independence in each limb in order to be able to express myself musically and effectively with rhythm. But with things I don’t like, such as, brickwork or laundry, I don’t enjoy the process at all. OK, I do like the way the brick patio looks and I do like to wear clean clothes, but I would much rather have someone else get me to that point.
So now for the gospel tie in, I think there is something beautiful about the process of understanding the gospel. The process of me realizing that I need a savior and that I have one in Jesus. With each success and failure, and in every relationship, I understand it deeper. I like that I need the gospel, because that need is met in Jesus. My function is to bring glory to God through Jesus. I don’t like that I can’t impress God on my own, and sometimes don’t even want to. There is an ongoing process of realizing this truth about myself, which I don’t always appreciate. What I have to be reminded is that Jesus got me to “that point”. The process that I don’t like is the process that Jesus went through to get me to the end result, a relationship with my Creator. I have the benefits of having favor with God without going through the process.
As for enjoying every process for every project, I don’t know if that’s possible for me. I can, however, enjoy processing the gospel in every project.
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