Unfinished Work

This is going to be one of my more serious posts, which seems to reflect the mood I have been in lately. I have this buddy of mine that I've mentioned indirectly on this blog for just over a year. We became tight under the strangest circumstances and it became pretty clear God had designed our friendship from the beginning.

He believed in God but had a hard time reconciling himself to to Him. In large part this was because of his past; and I'll be honest, I'm no prude, but his life was like nothing I had ever been acquainted with before. He was someone interested enough in God to ask questions and willing to allow me to pray with him.....in fact, he was anxious to go with me to search out what God wanted in my life on my "Spiritual Retreat" a year ago to maybe glean something from me.

He and I began to work together professionally as I helped him sort out things in his business. He's a proud, self-made man whose goal was to have enough cash to own a home (none of his family had ever owned their homes, in fact spent some time in homeless shelters) and help his family back in central Indiana. About mid-May he seemed to disappear, but after awhile I made contact to find out that he was at about the lowest point in his life.

We got together and that first Friday of June he came to faith in Christ. And remarkable as it sounds, a supernatural component was clearly at work as a long, overcast and rainy day opened up enough to shine directly into the cab of his truck after he prayed. Things started to turn around for him quickly after that and we continued to work together and took a brief retreat kayaking on Sugar Creek in September.

He started to fade out of the picture again in November and based on what I'm hearing, he's near bottom again. So, I'm left wondering.......what's the point, God? I don't question the sincerity of his decision back in June, nor of God's work in all of it. I sure don't want him to have to hit rock bottom for him to change things around, but I often hear people say maybe that's what is needed.

I know that God has had to get my attention a few times with a 2 x 4. It isn't pleasant. It is easy to walk back into a less than spiritual lifestyle when it is the only thing we've ever known, usually it is with the "help" of others. Still, there is a bit of guilt I'm dealing with now because it seems the point person for a new life may have failed him.

There's a bit of unfinished work at our house this old friend began. It is a source of frustration for both my wife and me. But I was struck Thursday morning around 6:00 am as I stood looking at it that all of the prayer that went into the friendship a year ago became the seed to a transformed life. And then I remembered something from college days....the unfinished work by Michelangelo "the dying slave" which some speculate would have rivaled his David.

We are all unfinished pieces of work that God continues to mold, some of us from clay-others, stone. So, I'm using this bit of "unfinished work" in our kitchen as inspiration to pray for my buddy's God sparked "unfinished work". Which means I'll be praying for him a few dozen times a day, and would ask all of you to do so too.

I have two upcoming posts planned that you won't want to miss.....but they're going to take some time to get together....and time is something of a short commodity for me right now.