It’s easy to assume we have what it takes when life is going well and we’re not faced with any particular challenges. But our undone parts quickly get exposed when all hell breaks loose. We discover what we’re made of in these moments, and those areas that still need to be refined and matured towards God’s best.
For instance, military training is designed in part to push a recruit to his edge – stripping away all of his pretenses to discover what’s really inside of him. This is not done to humiliate, but to reveal those areas that still need to be strengthened – making him better equipped for the battlefield.
And the challenges in our life and relationships serve a similar purpose.
For example, marriage is much more than a never-ending date. Its intensity exposes the many undone parts of our hearts. Perhaps we thought of ourselves as kind and considerate before, until we realized just how much sacrifice would be required of us to love our wife well. And parenthood then takes this to another level as new layers of impatience and selfishness get exposed.
Likewise, it’s easy to say we’re living by faith when our faith is not tested. But the cracks in our foundation are exposed when a loved one dies unexpectedly, we can never seem to catch a break in life, or when the anger, distrust, and fear permeating our communities simply wears us down.
Whatever it looks like, like the military recruit, the challenges of life push us to our edge and reveal what we’re made of. And this exposes those parts of us still in need of the redeeming work of Christ.
As such, it’s not a point of despair to find ourselves still undone in many areas. Rather, this is an opportunity to let Christ save us even here – continually giving more of ourselves over to his lordship.
To be sure, it does no good to blindly keep pretending we have it all together, or to beat ourselves up when we realize we don’t. The wise approach is simply to submit to God’s training ground throughout our life as we’re being made holy.
In the end, let the challenges of life reveal your undone parts as you continue to be conformed into the image of Christ.
Photo by Kristopher Roller on Unsplash
