Those long, slow updates that your computer occasionally undertakes can be frustrating. Just when you think it has finished its job of making changes, improvements and modifications, it restarts itself and gets back to the work of updating. You might see a screen that shows what percentage of the way it has completed, or you might not.  It might say the work is 100% completed, only to have it re-start, revealing that it was only that stage of the process was completed. In reality, it is never really “finished” in that changes and updates are a constant part of the computer’s life. That doesn’t mean the process isn’t frustrating. I wonder if God feels the same way about us.

Of course, in the constant state of change that leads to the ongoing need for major updates, there are the less time-consuming reset and hidden updates that help keep things on track. As for me, I am wrapping up a 12-year update, but I have the clarity to now know what has been going on. Life had put in a lot of “viruses” and security gaps and this past decade-plus comprises a series of phases with intermittent reboots that are leading to important updates. Fortunately, God’s love and mercy is imbued with patience and I have not received the “blue screen of death,” as it were.  I have received lessons, though.

• Life consists of never-ending updates, if we pay attention and humble ourselves. Some updates we can opt for and others will occur whether we are choose them or not.
• There are no clear indicators of where we are in the process, but we are assured that there is more to be done. In fact, we may never know until after we have died. I look often to John Henry Newman’s words, “God has created me to do Him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission. I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good; I shall do His work.” To complete that assignment, we must keep improving.
• As soon as we get comfortable with our state, we get a firm or subtle reminder that there is an update required of our thoughts and behaviors. We must pay attention to, and respond to, those reminders. Opt in.

While we may lose patience with our computer’s frequent need to restart, reboot, reset and update to become better at what it is, thanks to His love and mercy, He doesn’t with us.