The fiddly bits

You know when you are working on a project and the big giant hairy mess part of it is over? Then you still have to do the other 90% of the work?

That's where I am with my tractor. I have it back in one piece rather than two halves and that's the big giant hairy mess, but now I have 90% of the work left in the fiddly bits. I have to hook up wires and hoses and tubes and all sorts of stuff that was just in the way when I took the tractor apart and now is all the important work.

Doesn't this same principle apply to our lives? When we make a decision to accept Jesus' free gift of paying for our sins, that's the big giant hairy mess part of it...we are overwhelmed with emotion, frequently tears flow freely and we feel like a giant burden has been lifted. Then we still have 90% more work to do.

At the start, this decision, this asking for forgiveness and then accepting it is huge. As we continue to spend time in relationship with our God and pray and work, we find that we have so much more to do. We are never finished growing and there is always something God has to show us right around the next corner. I think that's what God is most concerned about in us...the fiddly bits. God wants to work on us to clean up the fiddly bits...