Phil. 2:12-13

“…continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” (Phil. 2:12b-13)

One last step, and the backpack peeled off my sweaty back and feet collapsed in the sand. The wind whisked over my weariness, wiping away the sweat. An exhausting 6-mile hike up and down sand-dunes with a heavy backpack—each step  up slid down two. Sun-hot sand and sun-hot sky and sun-sheen heat. Destination on top of mile-high dunes cascading down to Lake Michigan, exhilaration. The scenery was beautiful. Looking ahead, the Lake, the clearest I had ever seen it. Behind, the ribbed dunes I had climbed, my steps already disappearing as the wind swept up behind us.

I like the dune-top moments. I like the sense of arrival, the rest, having conquered, and the perspective. I often want life to be like that. I have read Phil. 2:12-13 from that perspective. God works in me at that height, the overarching somewhat hazy goal of sanctification.

Yet, I am still trudging up the dunes and the hazy idea of “what God is working in me to will and to do” is somewhat fuzzy in the sun. It recently struck me that God isn’t working on that dune-top experience, toward some ethereal, spiritual goal. He is working in me to will and to do in each step. In my struggles, when I slide down the sand. In a more common cliché, he works in me to will and to do where the rubber hits the road. It is in my struggles, my weaknesses, my sins that he comes in to help me will and to do. We can only work because he works in us. I forget sometimes that God is involved in those steps and slides in sand, instead of just being interested in the destination.

Today, now, he is working in me to will and to do. I listen, and step, in his strength. Step-by-step. He is my “ever-present help in trouble” (Ps. 46:1). In Christ, we can each moment run up and “receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Heb. 4:16). Goodness knows, I need it, because the sand keeps sliding underneath my feet.