Carl and I drove to and from East Texas in a matter of just three days. If you\u2019ve driven the highways between Alto and Austin lately, you know something about that trip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Construction zones. Everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Every few miles we ran into orange cones, blinking signs, and long lines of cars waiting patiently while road crews waved traffic through one lane at a time. At several points we sat there — engines idling — wondering if we\u2019d ever move again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Annoying? A little.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Necessary? Absolutely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those new roads will make travel smoother and safer. But in the moment, it\u2019s hard to picture the finished product when all we see are cones and delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And somewhere between those construction zones, a thought hit me. My heart looks a lot like that highway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Piles of insecurities still need hauling away. Detours pop up when my attitude needs adjusting. Sometimes the Lord sets up a few orange cones to keep me from veering into places I shouldn\u2019t go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ever feel that way?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhy am I still struggling with this?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhy does this bother me?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhy isn\u2019t progress faster?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The apostle John once wrote to believers who felt the same frustration. He reminded them:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known — but when Christ appears, we shall be like Him.\u201d (1 John 3:2)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In other words \u2014 the work isn\u2019t finished yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When we first trust Christ, we are instantly forgiven and welcomed into God\u2019s family. But the process of becoming more like Him takes time. It\u2019s a renovation project of the soul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Loose translation — our hearts are still under construction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The good news is we\u2019re not managing the job site alone. God has given us the Holy Spirit as our divine Project Manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWalk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(Galatians 5:16)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He directs the work. He moves the cones. He keeps us heading the right way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So if your life feels like a construction zone right now, don\u2019t lose heart. Progress is happening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And one day, when we finally see our Father face to face, the cones will disappear — the road will be smooth — and the project will be complete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Until then, let’s drive slowly while staying alert. God is still working on you and me — right on through to our heavenly home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Carl and I drove to and from East Texas in a matter of just three days. If you\u2019ve driven the highways between Alto and Austin lately, you know something about that trip. Construction zones. Everywhere. Every few miles we ran into orange cones, blinking signs, and long lines of cars waiting patiently while road crews…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23941,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[33385,11987,650,33409,1210,1321,1769,33407,22996,25235,20832,16712,40,33410,33412,33411,33408,88,33413],"class_list":["post-23940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-alto","tag-annoying","tag-austin","tag-blinking-signs","tag-blog","tag-children-of-god","tag-christian","tag-construction-zone","tag-detours","tag-east-texas","tag-epiphany-ranch","tag-highways","tag-inspiration","tag-long-lines-of-cars","tag-not-finished","tag-one-lane","tag-orange-cones","tag-traffic","tag-trust-christ"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23940"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23942,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23940\/revisions\/23942"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}