progress?

Yesterday I took inventory of how I am doing on my New Year’s resolution(s). And I realized very quickly that I have already failed on numerous occasions to meet them.
No, I am not in a state of despair and hopelessness over this realization. Nor do I think that I am a failure as a person because of it. Whew.
Rather, it produces a little chuckle inwardly. Why? Because the nature of learning is to make mistakes (not to mention, it is good to laugh at yourself once in a while). And my resolutions this year revolve more around a process of continual growth than around counted successes. To learn is to try, make mistakes, and keep trying until you master the thing in question.

s a n c t i f y 
verb: [sangk-tuh-fahy]
1. to make holy; set apart as sacred; consecrate.
2. to purify or free from sin…
5. to make productive of or conducive to spiritual blessing

I once read somewhere that God takes delight in the process of sanctifying His children. I often think that the end result is the part that brings Him glory. And of course, it does in its time. But if God can only be glorified in the fully sanctified person, the “finished product”, what of His glory now?
Sanctification is a life-long process. No human being will know perfection in this life time. Ask the retired missionary, the ancient saintly lady in your church, your grandparents…any one of them will tell you that even at their ripe old age, they are still learning and being refined by their heavenly Father. “Life is a journey, not a destination.”

So what of now, then? Much as I like the idea of a finished product (says the perfectionist in me), I do believe that God is glorified in the processes of growth. When a little lump of clay submits to the Potter’s hand to be shaped, refined, sanded, and made into a vessel, that little clay lump is a delight to the One who is transforming it, even before it has become a vessel.

My resolve for this year is to learn to be patient. I knew going into it that to learn the thing would require the practice of it right off the hop. And truthfully, I am not very good at patience. However, just as learning a Bach invention requires patience (lots of patience, as I have discovered), learning patience also requires patience. It requires practice. It demands a conscious decision to be disciplined, however tedious or unrewarding it may seem at the time, and to be consistent in the implementation of that discipline.

If you are like me, and have discovered that already you have fallen into the mud and mire on the path of resolve, take heart. Part of the adventure is the rocks on the path, the puddles you have to walk through, and the tree branches that slap you in the face along the way. By encountering these obstacles, you learn to avoid the rocks, to walk around the puddles, and to watch out for those obnoxious tree branches.
Praise God and thank Him for the journey He is taking you on this year. Rejoice! because His grace is available to us more than just at the beginning of the year. He daily supplies us with the grace we need.
Give yourself the year. It has only just begun.

Seeing then that we have a Great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.
Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

~ Hebrews 4:14-16 NKJV

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Definition taken from Dictionary.com