Mould us

Take me, mould me Lord

In the last post I made the point that no matter how mis-shaped we feel we are or have become, God has a unique place for us in his wall! Our presence in that place makes the whole wall sturdier, more effective, no matter how useless we have been made to feel.

But of course we're not finsihed yet! This isn't our final shape - if we continue in faith we will one day be like Jesus. So I've been thinking about the process of moulding, refining, transforming. God is good and does a great job directly, through his word, through his Holy Spirit. But I've learned a lot recently about the joy of allowing others to help as well. I've found that God loves to involve others in this process. The Paintings have been kind of God Parents to me (I reckon adults can have God parents too :)), encouraging, helping me battle, speaking truth, helping my life become more balanced. They have been honest enough to share with me difficult stuff, challenge me on things that I just took as normal and true, and I am very grateful. They have protected, always hoped for the best, and been great friends. They have helped me see Gods love in deeper ways, not tried to get me to do things like them, but encouraged me to learn who I am, to take risks, knowing I am loved by God.

At the same time I have had choices to make - choices to keep stepping with God, choices to battle and fight, choices to hand things over, choices to keep working on things. The choices have not been easy, they have required realigning with God. Its not just been a case of detatching and saying what I thought I should say, nor what I think God would want me to say. But rather being thoroughly honest, recognising where I was really at. And loving friendships can really help in getting to that point. They can look beyond the immediate, see the wood for the trees, the roots not the symptoms. And as that mutual trust grows it provides a platform for honesty, saying where I felt things were, what I really believed about God. Turns out to be a lot like the psalms - David railing against God and his circumstances, but out of that learning the truth about himself and his God.

God is Good, he transforms broken things into beautiful masterpieces.