Revise

By André Vander Velde

Creating art, whether it’s music, a poem, or a painting, is one of my favorite things in life. Each time you begin is a new adventure with unexpected twists and turns, highs and lows, and moments of inspiration and even writer’s block. Often, I’m surprised to see where I end up. Not because I didn’t know where I was going—although sometimes I don’t—but because as I invested in the seed of an idea, it bloomed into a fruitful piece of art far greater than I imagined. 

Once a piece of work is done and shared with the world, I think many people only see the finished product as artists are suddenly struck with a moment of inspiration and immediately plop out a masterpiece. The truth is: the process of making art is messy. It requires a lot of work and it requires revision, after revision, after revision, after revision.

The hardest part of creating is in the middle. It’s after the emotion from that spark of inspiration fades that the truth of greatness stares you in the face. It’s while everything on your page looks like a problem and there are no solutions in sight and you feel like crumpling up the page and tossing it in the trash.

I think many of us can feel like that as Christians. We started a journey that felt otherworldly and were inspired by special moments from God that called us to something greater. We set out to do the work, then somewhere along the way we feel stuck.

We struggle to remember why we began in the first place, and we’re thinking about crumpling this whole Christian life up and tossing it aside as garbage. But if I can I speak a word of encouragement to you today: don’t quit. Don’t toss aside the masterpiece in the making, because even though your life may look like a mess, there is a seed of hope and abundant life embedded somewhere within it. 

Artists talk a lot about silencing the inner critic. There is a voice inside our heads that say, “you’re not good enough”, “you’re a fool for starting such an endeavor and everyone is going to laugh in your face when you have to quit”, or “you’ve made too many mistakes and you’re a lost hope”. These inner critics (and sometimes external critics) must be silenced in order for us to complete the work we were called to do.

There is a story in the Bible of a woman caught in adultery who was facing some tough critics that brought her to Jesus to test him. Essentially, they had a negative critique of Jesus’ ministry as well. They laid the woman’s charges and the Law of Moses before him and asked what should be done. 

Jesus bent down and drew a line in the sand, perhaps the first line of revision in the lives of both this woman and her accusers. Then he said, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” He went back to the ground to write something more, he made a couple more revisions to their thinking or their expectations. It was enough for them to walk away one by one until the woman was alone before Jesus, who said, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.” (John 8:11)

I don’t know where you are on your journey to becoming God’s masterpiece. Maybe you’re newly inspired, maybe you’re stuck in a mess with critics and accusers holding you back, or maybe you’re learning how to live an uncondemned life with Jesus; wherever you are keep going! Invite Jesus into your circumstances so that you can co-labor and co-create on this journey together. He’s the only one who can completely free you from those negative thoughts, from the haters and accusers condemning you. He’s the only one who can make the greatest revisions of life: forgiving our sins and leading us into an abundant life, which means living in a more pure and perfect state like Jesus.

I believe God wants to make revisions to your life this week. It may mean striking out and removing sins, thoughts or behaviors from our life. It may be abiding and waiting in His Presence until you have the right words to speak. It may mean loving people we would normally write off. Whatever it is for you personally, it definitely means living a life with purpose and getting one step closer, day-by-day, to being God’s masterpiece and doing all the good He has planned for you to do.

Challenge:

Is there any area of your life that just seems messy? Perhaps in need of revision? Today as you pray, ask God to reveal that area to you if you're not aware of it already. Do not fear this process, but you may have to face your inner critic. As you go through, pray that God would reveal to you the next step in revision, then follow through and obey His corrections. Remember, the work may be messy, but He is creating a masterpiece.