Work in Progress

In Genesis 12:10-20, Abram pretends Sari is his sister instead of his wife while they are in Egypt. Pharoah takes her as his wife and then pays the price. Eventually, Pharoah returns Sarai to Abram once he discovers the truth.

You would think Abram would have learned his lesson from that . . . right?

Well, you would be wrong.

In Genesis 20, Abram, now called Abraham, does the same thing with King Abimelek. Abraham tell the king Sarai, now called Sarah, is his sister not his wife. This time God spares Abimelek the harsh consequences for taking another man's wife, but tells him the truth. Abimelek confronts Abraham on it.

When I get to reading about the second time Abraham did something he knew he shouldn't, it can be easy to start wondering why Abraham didn't seem to learn the first time. I mean, did he really expect the same lie would work well the second time when didn't the first time?

But this time I was stopped short with a challenging question:

Am I really any different?

Why do I find it so easy to judge Abraham for doing something I do all the time?

The reality is that I keep doing the same things, even when I should know from past experience that's not the choice I should make. So I don't have any reason to look at Abraham in judgement for what he did.

This all makes me wonder why.

Why do we, as human beings, seem to find ourselves still battling against the same thing over and over again?

It's because we're all works in progress. None of us is a complete work yet. God is still at work in us. And He won't be done with us until we're with Him in heaven. Until then, we'll still face battles as we allow Him to work.

Being a work in progress doesn't give us an excuse to intentionally do things we know we shouldn't. But it explains why it takes time for things to change in our lives. Why we may find ourselves making the same choice we know we shouldn't . . . again.

We need to allow ourselves to be God's work in progress. The more we allow God to work in us, the more like what He has for us we become. And the less we'll find ourselves doing things again that we already know we shouldn't do.

I'd rather be a work in progress than an unfinished project the Artist has given up on.

What about you?