On our fall visit to the east coast and DC, we strolled down Pennsylvania Ave in front of the White House. Lafayette Park and its protestors at our backs, we saw the above pic of the WH undergoing construction of some sort. Likely external security on the fence, but the Secret Service wouldn’t tell. Can’t figure out why. 😉
We’d toured a traveling WH model a few years back at the Reagan Library, and the lessons there and the fence combined to make me see the White House as a Work in Progress, or WIP to writers. Here’s its story. Begun in 1792, it saw John Adams move in during 1800, then the Brits almost completely burned and destroyed in 1814. Only one wall could be used in rebuilding it. The South Portico, or back porch, arrived in 1824, the North Portico followed in 1829.
Teddy Roosevelt did major renovating and added the West Wing in 1902, only to have Truman gut the inside and rebuild it in 1948. Over the years, the Oval Office was added, then moved, and just about every First Lady has redecorated some. Now, the fence. Still a WIP.
What a metaphor for life, and us. Technology and urban congestion and political partisanship have transformed our country. Our lives change, with age, maturity, growing knowledge, circumstances beyond our control. Truly, we are works in progress. And if we stop moving, if we stop responding to change, then we quit living. In effect, we die.
So how can we navigate the healthy changes needed as WIPs?
First, set a goal. A worthy one you’d like to end up like. Jesus’ Greatest Commandments include loving God with all our being, loving others, and loving ourselves appropriately. Loving yourself would seem to require being the best you can be. Keep these goals, but keep in mind the third tip, to follow.
Second, intentionally craft a strategy to achieve those goals. Frankly, I ambled through too much of life. Serving God, but no specific direction or strategy. When I started to become more intentional, around 30, better things happened. Even then, I could have been more strategic. So please don’t wait as long as I did (and am, even now, to some extent).
Third, flex. Being a WIP means making progress. How we love God will change as we walk with him. We’ll discover better strategies. And life impacts us. I appreciate the military truism that no battle plan survives contact with the enemy. None of our plans proceed as we planned. Keep the main goal of loving God better all the time, and just figure out how to best do that.
As an old country farmer once said, “I may not be what I otta be, but thank God, I ain’t what I usta be.” A WIP. Be one.
Kick Starting the Application
Have you seriously thought of how you can better love God, others, and yourself? What would you be like if you grew into the you that God designed? What most keeps you from that? Of the three options in dealing with change and progress, which do you most identify with: make no plans and stay the same, respond to the changes as they arrive, or intentionally craft and refine how to grow? How can you improve this?