Being Unfinished Does Not Mean You Are Failing
How to Trust That God Is Still Working on You
There is a moment during almost every remodeling project when the room looks worse than it did before anybody touched it.
The carpet is gone.
The walls are torn apart.
Tools are everywhere.
There is dust in places dust should never be.
Somebody has removed something important and apparently forgotten the part where they put something else back.
If you walked in at exactly the wrong moment, you might think:
What happened in here?
But the mess does not necessarily mean the project is failing.
Sometimes the mess is evidence that work is happening.
Human beings can look that way too.
Especially from the inside.
You notice what still needs fixing.
What you keep getting wrong.
What you should understand by now.
The habit you thought you would have overcome.
The testimony you wish were stronger.
The fear you thought would be gone.
The weakness that somehow survived another sincere New Year’s resolution.
And it is easy to look at all of that unfinished spiritual construction and conclude:
I must be failing.
Isaiah gives us a much more hopeful way to see it.
God says:
“I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder.”
—Isaiah 29:14
Then a few chapters later, Isaiah describes the people God is working with:
“Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.”
“Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not.”
—Isaiah 35:3–4
I love that.
Who is involved in God’s marvellous work?
People with weak hands.
Feeble knees.
Fearful hearts.
In other words:
People who do not have everything figured out.
People like us.
Sometimes we imagine God’s work happening among spiritual superheroes.
People who wake up at 5:00 a.m. excited to read seventeen chapters of Isaiah.
People whose prayers are always focused.
People who never doubt.
Never struggle.
Never have to repent of the same weakness twice.
I have met approximately zero of those people.
Real discipleship is usually much messier.
It involves trying.
Falling.
Repenting.
Learning.
Trying again.
Sometimes making progress.
Sometimes wondering where all your progress went.
And then trying again anyway.
Isaiah’s words matter because God’s response to weakness is not:
Come back when you are stronger.
He says:
“Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come … he will come and save you.”
Notice where the confidence comes from.
Not:
You are strong enough.
Not:
You finally figured everything out.
Not:
You will never struggle again.
Your God will come.
That changes everything.
The gospel is not a story about humans becoming impressive enough to save themselves.
It is a story about Jesus Christ saving humans who need Him.
Sometimes teenagers—and adults—confuse struggling with failing.
Those are not the same thing.
You can be struggling with something and still be moving forward.
You can be afraid and still have faith.
You can need to repent again and still be growing.
You can have questions and still be a disciple.
You can be unfinished without being hopeless.
Elder J. Devn Cornish once gave one of the most reassuring answers I have heard to the question many people quietly ask:
Am I good enough? Will I make it?
His answer was essentially yes—as long as we keep repenting and do not give up on Christ.
That is not permission to stop trying.
It is permission to stop believing perfection is required before God can work with you.
He is already working with you.
That is what His work is.
In Moses 1:39, God explains:
“This is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.”
That means when God says He is doing a marvellous work, you are not watching from the sidelines.
You are part of the work.
Your repentance is part of the work.
Your healing is part of the work.
Your becoming is part of the work.
Your return home is part of the work.
That does not mean God causes every painful thing that happens to you.
Agency is real.
A fallen world is real.
People make choices that hurt other people.
Illness happens.
Families struggle.
Relationships break.
Things happen that God would never choose for us.
But one of the most remarkable truths I have learned is that God wastes very little.
He can redeem experiences He did not cause.
He can use broken things.
He can teach us through things we would never have chosen.
I can look back at different seasons of my own life and see that more clearly now.
My mission.
Struggles with self-worth.
Divorce.
Other difficult seasons I would not have voluntarily signed up for.
There were times when my hands felt weak.
My knees were not exactly steady.
My heart was afraid.
At the time, I could not always see what God was doing.
Sometimes I wondered whether He was doing anything at all.
Looking back, I can see growth I could not see while I was inside it.
Compassion.
Perspective.
Patience.
A different understanding of other people.
A deeper dependence on Jesus Christ.
I would never claim God caused every painful part of those experiences.
But I have watched Him redeem them.
That is different.
And beautiful.
Sometimes God removes the mountain.
Sometimes He strengthens the legs climbing it.
Sometimes He changes the situation.
Sometimes He changes us inside the situation.
Often He does both over time.
Elder Brook P. Hales taught something simple and powerful:
Mortality works.
That does not mean mortality is pleasant.
It means God’s plan works.
We were not sent here to fail.
We came here to become.
Think about physical strength.
Muscles grow because they encounter resistance.
Nobody walks into a gym and says:
Please remove all resistance from this exercise so I can become stronger.
That would defeat the point.
Life contains resistance.
Again, not every painful experience is divinely assigned.
But Jesus Christ is so powerful that even experiences He did not cause can become material for growth when we give them to Him.
That may be one reason Elder Patrick Kearon taught that Heavenly Father’s plan is designed to bring His children home.
Home.
That is where Isaiah 35 eventually goes.
After the weak hands.
After the feeble knees.
After the fearful hearts.
Isaiah says:
“The ransomed of the Lord shall return … with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads.”
—Isaiah 35:10
That is the destination.
The chapter does not end with weakness.
It ends with home.
Maybe yours does too.
So if your life feels unfinished right now, be careful what conclusion you draw from that.
A construction zone is not proof the builder abandoned the project.
Sometimes it means the Builder is still working.
Scripture
“Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.”
—Isaiah 35:3
“Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come … he will come and save you.”
—Isaiah 35:4
“And the ransomed of the Lord shall return … with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads.”
—Isaiah 35:10
Reflection
What part of your life feels most unfinished right now?
Where are you hardest on yourself?
Are you confusing slow progress with no progress?
What weakness makes you wonder whether you will ever really change?
Can you think of a difficult experience that taught you something you could not see while you were going through it?
How has Jesus Christ strengthened you before?
What evidence can you already see that God has been working on you?
Today’s Challenge
Identify one unfinished part of your life.
A weakness.
A fear.
A relationship.
A spiritual struggle.
A question.
Something you wish were different.
Instead of only praying:
“Please make this go away,”
try adding another question:
“Heavenly Father, what are You helping me become through this?”
Then listen.
You may not immediately understand the answer.
That is okay.
Remember:
Being unfinished does not mean you are failing.
And it definitely does not mean God has stopped working.
Christ-Centered Thought
Jesus Christ specializes in unfinished people.
Peter was unfinished when Christ called him.
Thomas was unfinished.
Martha was unfinished.
James and John were unfinished.
Every disciple who ever followed Jesus was still becoming.
So are you.
Christ does not wait at the finish line shouting instructions at struggling people.
He comes to them.
That is Isaiah’s promise:
“Your God will come … he will come and save you.”
He comes into weakness.
Fear.
Repentance.
Questions.
Messy lives.
Unfinished stories.
And He works there.
You may not be able to see everything He is doing yet.
That does not mean nothing is happening.
God knew you before mortality.
He knows you now.
And bringing His children home is His work.
So keep going.
Keep repenting.
Keep trusting.
Keep turning toward Jesus Christ.
Your hands may feel weak.
Your knees may feel feeble.
Your heart may still be afraid.
But Isaiah does not end there.
He ends with the ransomed coming home with everlasting joy.
You are not the finished product yet.
None of us are.
But do not confuse being unfinished with being hopeless.
God is still doing a marvellous work.
And part of that work is you.
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