Big picture and the Details

We painted our living room.  It may seem like a small thing but we have been talking about for a couple of years. Just had not gotten around to it until now.  And not only did we paint the living room walls, but also the trim and the closet doors. 

So now we have a whole room complete. Maybe when I said we painted the living room, you assumed we also did the trim but that would not be a great assumption in our house. 

Or should I say it would not be a good assumption for a project that I was working on. I can get on board of a project for about the first 75%, and then I am over it. “Good enough” might as well be my motto. The little details do not concern me much.

I like results, but I also prefer order and rest to the satisfaction of a job well done. 

Basically, I don’t want a project to get in the way of my “me time” so if it can’t be wrapped up by bedtime, count me out. 

There are “projects” in my life that feel undone. Dreams that have gone unmet.  Prayers that feel unanswered. Answers that seem still far off.  And it can feel unsettling at times. 

At other times, I get really used to living in the mess of the undone.

God does not grow weary.  He does not lose interest at the end. He is a God that accomplishes all He sets out to accomplish, both in the big picture and the tiny details. However, he is not rushed.  He is in no hurry.

In my life there are projects that feel prepped like a primed wall.  It’s almost a tease at what could be. Or some dreams that are in progress, and yet it feels like the final details were left undone, like a wall with bear trim. 

I cycle between frustration at the seeming loose ends and indifference like I have gotten used to things the way they are. Without motivation to pursue the completion.

This can happen in my own sanctification with the feelings that I will have been made as holy as I will get. That God got bored and moved on. 

It also happens as I pray to the Lord. Mostly in my own perseverance in prayer for the salvation of the lost, the unification of the church, and the victory of the Lord. I either lose heart believing that the present reality is just the way it is going to be. Or become apathetic just accepting the reality as good enough. 

But the Lord is not slow as we see slowness. He is patient that all might come to salvation.

The Lord is oding what He has been doing since the beginning of time. He never slept. He never got distracted. He never grew weary.

The Lord is finishing His projects. He is working late into the night lovingly painting the trim of our lives. He is not slow.  He will work out these things that He started in us.

But what we need to remember is that God fulfills our plans only as He fulfills His greater perfect plans for the universe. So if things feel slow or incomplete, remember that we do not see all the pieces of the plan. We do see all the things God is doing.  We only see our small part from our limited perspective. 

He is renewing lives, saving the lost, and establishing His kingdom. He accomplishes His will in our life as part of the bigger picture He is doing for His kingdom. 

So some of our desires will not be fulfilled, for His glory and our good. Some of our plans will pivot in directions we did not expect, for His glory and our good.

Some of the things we want will fall apart, and we have to remember that we might not see how that will help things in someone else’s life to fall together in a way that they come to salvation.

God loves us. He loves all His people. And He will not withhold or forget about the things that are good.  But He loves us enough to only accomplish them in His time.  

And thank the Lord for that. 

When we stand at the end of our lives, we will see the bigger pictures.  We will see what God was building. And we will praise Him for doing it His way, in His time.