Will you see Potential instead of Neat and Tidy?

This post is going to start from a slightly random place, but I do ask that you don’t give up on it to quickly. It is going somewhere. 🙂

There is a game I play on my phone. I won’t give the name of the game as I’d rather not be advertising games. 🙂
It is however a puzzle type game.
Blocks of different shapes are given and you have to place them on a board to make lines, columns or boxes for the shapes to then be removed from the board.

Now I can tend to have a neat and tidy way about me. (Not that you can tell this from the mess I leave behind me at times 🙂 )
When I first started playing the game, I tried to place the pieces on the board in a neat and tidy way. It soon became clear to me that this was not a good tactic. The board would soon close up and the message “No space available” would soon appear, meaning Game Over.

I soon came to the conclusion that neat and tidy didn’t work and that developing potential for lines or boxes to be completed was a better way to go forward.
I had to change my thinking.

One time as I was playing, thinking about looking for potential over neat and tidy, I had the thought,
“Is neat and tidy in the church the best thing to be aiming for, or is looking for potential more important?”

Please don’t get me wrong here. There is a need for order in the church.
But if we are so set on having everything done in such a way, because that’s the way it’s always been done and it works, then are we trying to make things too neat and tidy?
Are we missing potential, because we like neat and tidy?

As an example, if we have someone new to try and do a task that has been done for a while, then how will they do?
Will they get everything correct from the start?
Probably not. They will need time to learn how to do the task. They may get things back to front. They could even come up with a better way of how to do …… (It’s possible.)
When we look at them as they start, will we think, they are just not neat and tidy, or will we be able to see the potential that they have?
Can we see them as they will be instead of how they are now?

When we look at people in the church, will we be able to see the potential in them, instead of where they are now?
Will we be able to act in a way to promote the potential in others, or will we be looking to keep things neat and tidy?

We are all a work in progress!
A masterpiece in the making! (If we allow God to have His way.)
Will we be able to see this?
Will others see the masterpiece that we will be and will we see the masterpiece that they will be?
Can we bear with the rough edges of …… as the masterpieces are formed?

Father,
We do need a certain amount of order in all things, but please help us to know what is good for us and what is not so good.
Help us to see the potential that You see.
Help us to know and trust You, so that we can follow Your ways, wherever they may lead us, even if it seems a bit untidy at times.
Help us to keep in step with You.
Amen.