If you walk past The Salvation Army in Clements Road you will notice that there is a lot of scaffolding. We are in the process of some long-awaited renovations! Each week, I walk around the site with the contractors. It is a work in progress.

A building project can help us draw a number of analogies to the development of one’s spiritual life. Firstly, it takes planning. Being a disciple requires discipline. We think about what we are going to do before we do it. In the same way that an architect designs a building, so too, we seek a vision of who we can be.

We then start using those resources to begin the “work”. It is wonderful when things go to plan, but we know that challenges come up. Obstacles or unforeseen situations arise which mean that we need to change the plan. Just like the contractors on a building site, we need the flexibility to be able to cope with the challenges.

Bit by bit, we see the vision become reality. The work in progress becomes concrete, taking form. In the same way that a building must be continually updated to make it fit for purpose, so too our discipleship never ends as “we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord.”