A Work In Progress

Crafters are very familiar with that expression - how's that jumper you were knitting? "Well it's a WIP - Work In Progress" [or sometimes UFO - UnFinished Object, or PhD - Project Half Done] But it applies to people too. We are all learning, growing - and hopefully becoming the people we ought to be.

Our Church has adopted a "Vision and Values" Statement which sets out what we believe, about God, and about our commitment to him, to each other, and to our world.
Here's our Vision Statement

To see the Kingdom of God built, in Ferndown and wherever we are, through each member as we grow together as disciples of Jesus. 

This is a shared goal – we work together to build God’s kingdom. And that’s also local – we are committed to the community in which God has placed us. But it is also an individual goal: we believe in preparing people to be effective representatives of God’s Kingdom wherever they are, and in whatever they are doing.

And then there are 11 Values - [you can read them here]

Over the last few weeks, Bob has been teaching about each of these in turn - tonight we will be considering Value 7 - "Work In Progress"

We are a people who acknowledge that we are not the finished article. We will remain humble, realising that in both success and defeat God is working through us for our good and always questioning how and why we are doing what we are doing. We will be gentle and understanding with those who struggle, acknowledging that none of us is accepted by God through our own merit. Faith is a lifelong journey, and while we travel together, we can each be at a different stage in that journey.

I find this so encouraging - I love the fact that we travel together, but each of us is at our own stage in the journey. I am grateful for God's grace that He is loving, accepting, and forgiving  - even when we go wrong. Sometimes when I am knitting or sewing, I make a mistake, and I have to unpick and re-do a section. Occasionally I spot a mistake that I made a few rows back, and there is even more unravelling and correcting and reknitting. Life is like that - there are mistakes which we can seek to correct promptly, and others which perhaps were made a long time ago, and we need the humility to acknowledge them. 
Sometimes the finished garment will carry evidence of a slip, even after we have done our best to rectify things. But that does not mean the garment is worthless, or unwearable. Our lives may carry the marks of previous bad times - but it does not mean we are worthless, or useless. We keep going on the journey...