Ep. 156 — They Can Wait + ”He’s Still Workin’ On Me”
He’s Still Workin’ On Me.
Parthenon, ten years.
Colosseum, seven to eight years.
Great Wall of China, twenty-three hundred years.
Taj Mahal, twenty-two years.
Great Pyramids, fifteen to thirty years.
The Eiffel Tower, two years, two months, five days.
Leaning Tower of Pisa, two hundred years.
Notre Dame, two hundred years.
Feeling very undone, very incomplete, very in the process and inadequate. But I am reminded of Ephesians 2:10: “For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath ordained that we should walk in them.” New Living Translation says, “For we are God's masterpiece.” New International Version says, “For we are God's handiwork.”
The Greek word for workmanship here is #4161, “poema,” a product, i.e. a fabric, that which has been made a work. It is where we get our English word “poem.”
I remember going to Greece several years ago and that verse taking on a new meaning as I was awestruck by the intricacy, detail, and durability of the antiquities. I had never seen something ancient as far as man made prior to that. As we visited the Parthenon, the Temple of Nike Athena, and other ancient monuments, the phrase, “we are his workmanship,” took on new light.
We are his workmanship, his masterpiece, an ongoing work of value and beauty in which the Master Artist is taking great care and attention to detail. As is often said, “Rome wasn't built in a day,” and as it turns out, neither were any of the other monuments, memorials, cathedrals, or temples that have stood the test of time. God is committed to the ongoing process of workmanship, of artistry, of forming me into his image, which reminds me of the words of Elizabeth Elliot, “What does it take to form his image in you? It takes a chisel and a file and a hammer.”
So when I look around my life and it looks like a construction site with piles of untouched marble, or I feel the blow of the Artist's chisel cutting into and removing parts of what I've been, or the process is taking much longer than I anticipated, let me remember another verse written by Paul: “He that has begun a good work in you will perform (or complete) it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
He is committed to see the building of this life all the way through to completion.
Like the old song says,
“He's still working on me to make me what I ought to be.
It took him just a week to make the moon and stars,
Sun and the earth, and Jupiter and Mars.
How loving and patient he must be, cause he's still working on me.”
He’s sticking it out, I will, too.
Thank you for joining me for this journey!
Go grab your Bible and your journal!
I look forward to the power of this habit in your life. This is Unedited.