I learned a lot about whittling recently. Not only how to whittle, but what it feels like to be whittled.
As we spent our evenings whittling away at the campfire, making dolphins and birds, I was contemplating some hard words from a friend.
At first I felt defensive.
Then I laughed it off. ‘It happens!’
Next I felt embarrassed. ‘Gosh, how could I make that mistake?’
And now…
I just feel humbled.
Last week I had the pleasure of learning from Dr. Frank Chan at Camp of the Woods in Speculator, NY. He talked about repentance. Repentance as you might know, is when we turn away from the direction we were going in and head towards God.
When I think of repentance, I think of what happens when we first become a Christ follower or after we mess up – we repent by turning away from our old ways.
But Dr. Chan spoke of repentance, not as a moment, but rather a season. Instead of repenting in prayer and moving on, we take a season to sit in a place of brokenness and humility, recognizing our own faults and depravity apart from him, and sitting in a place of dependence waiting for God to build us up. We don’t run forward, we don’t move on, we just sit.
Negative feelings are so uncomfortable. It’s my inclination to put them behind me as fast as possible. Say sorry, move on, and get back to normal. But that doesn’t produce growth or change. Not the kind I want anyway.
Like whittling, real change takes time, patience and requires sitting.
It was fascinating watching how one knife stroke at a time gradually whittled away at the wood to make a bird and a dolphin. The process was much longer than my children would’ve liked, but slowly, night after night, they whittled away at the campfire. With time and patience, they had beautiful creations.
Brothers and sisters, it takes great humility to sit in those uncomfortable places a while, but I believe the best place to be is under the Whittler’s hand.
If you’ve messed up, don’t just try to move on. Repent, and stay in that place of humility. Better the Lord heal you and lift you up in His time than you think you’re better and try to walk on broken legs.
James 4:6-10
“God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you... Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
