I have been working on a knitting project since October. It’s a complex knitting project with different stitch patterns and knitting in different directions. It’s one that I get frustrated with and put down, then pick back up once the frustration dies down. Sometimes I get mad enough with the project I want to hide it in a box never to be seen again. Sometimes I wonder if I should just pull the yarn from it and use in a different project. I even tried looking for different (easier) stich pattern to replace a section that was going to take a very long time, or make the section shorter and adapting the rest of the pattern to fit. But those things never happen. I continue to plug along on it.
The section I am doing right now is long and tedious. I am loving the way it is looking and how it is looking with the rest of the project, which is why I never totally quit the project. As much as I want to rush the project, knitting is not something that can be rushed- it is a slow process and takes as long as it takes. I have knit another complicated project by this designer and I know how worth it in the end it will be. I also know there is joy in seeing how different techniques take shape and influence the look of the final project.
Patience always pays off.
I think the same can be said for the church and God. God is doing something amazing here at UCC, we are indeed in process. There are times where I want to rush the process and do whatever it is that God has for us. I want to stop talking about doing something and just pick something and go. Maybe you feel the same way sometimes?
We may be like a complicated, tedious knitting project. God keeps working on us and we keep trying to faithfully listen to and follow God’s instructions. We may wonder if we will ever been done with this part of the process. We may want to just throw in the towel sometime. We may try to find a faster way to get to a similar end product.
Much like my knitting project, there is no way to rush the process. While we should not drag our feet and keep putting things off, when we are faithfully listen to God, discernment is a process that can take time. We must trust the process, trust God, trust ourselves in following the process.
Our end product will be even better than a beautiful, complicated, tedious knitting project.
Guiding Spirit. Be with us on this discernment journey as we figure out what is next in our congregation’s future. Help us to not use the discernment process as an excuse to drag our feet, but help us also not rush things just to get somewhere. We want to faithfully follow You and Your plan for us. Help us do just that. Amen.
