Impossible?

April 22

Every noble work is at first impossible. Thomas Carlyle

I have often joked that if it had been left to me, the wheel wouldn't have been invented yet. It's true, I am not one of the visionaries who, like the Lord, "See things that are not and call them as though they were," Romans 4:17. Some people have a real ability to invest themselves into concepts that require vision to formulate and develop, and ultimately advantage mankind. Others don’t.

The Thomas Edisons and the Alexander Graham Bells and the Jonas Saulks have improved our world beyond our ability to fathom. We who have grown up with technological wizardry before our eyes and at our fingertips view it differently than those who remember the 'rag man' riding down the street in his horse-drawn wagon.

Though older people may have difficulty envisioning the magnitude of change modernity has wrought, they are not prevented from using it to their advantage. But the 'noble work' Carlyle speaks of may go beyond the inventions and innovations that have improved lives. That noble work, in a purer sense, is that which the Lord is doing within each of us. We sometimes feel we have come as far as we can go. He sees us as better than we are.

And HE is ever working toward the end of our refashioning into the best version of ourselves that we can become when HE has done His transformative work within us. He pursues loftier goals for us than we would strive to attain for ourselves. He exposes us to challenges that HE expects us to overcome. If we fail, HE reminds us that we can be better; that we needn't succumb to the worst of our self. We may think we have attained the best we can be—but He doesn't concur because He knows “We can do all things through Christ…” Philippians 4:13.

There are times when we would prefer He simply allow us to be who we are, but He loves us too much to let us remain unrefined—He wants us to be whole and happy and free of any stigma of the past that would rob us of blessings in the present or in the future. Is this work impossible? Jesus doesn't think so. He will continue empowering us to be the excellent likeness of Christ He desires us to become because HE LOVES US and He intends to equip us to rule and reign with Him eternally (Romans 5:17-21, Romans 8:17). He knows no noble work is impossible in us.