the process...

interesting things of late...thinking today about the processes we go thru. i bought an old beater of a bike, found it in the basement of the hardware store in independence, ia. an old raleigh 10 speed, hadn't seen daylight in 20 years or more, judging by the license stickers and accumulated dust, grease, and spider webs. i've been SLOWLY working to clean it up (we named it walter), and get walt back into riding shape, all the while converting it to a single speed/kid hauler/bomb around town bike. i'm at the point now where i need some help -- don't have the right parts, the know-how is lacking, so i'm going to visit the experts. i'm really pleased as i look back on what has been done -- i've taken some parts off walter, learned how they go back on, seen how the bike is put together, and feel much more confident in working on it now than when i started. in all honesty, it would have been much easier to buy a bike already ready to go, but the process we've been thru in getting him to this point has been worth it to me.

kinda like faith in our lives. i wish that i just got everything right away, and that i had all my questions and issues fixed so i didn't have to wrestle, cry, sweat, bleed, and wonder. but all of the trials and struggles involved in this dance with God on a daily basis have been worth it, as the elbow grease and searching help the seed of faith grow into some pretty amazing things. unlike walter, which will soon be done (i hope), faith never ceases to be tweaked, stretched, challenged, and ultimately made better. that can seem daunting unless we look back over our experiences to see how far we've come, what God has enabled us to accomplish...

read: matthew 7:13-14