HE'S A PROJECT--A LIFELONG PROJECT

ESPN has made a spectacle of the NFL draft in recent years. It's great entertainment for football junkies. Just wondering whom their favorite team will select, trade for, or skip over, makes required viewing. When the selections are made, racuous cheers erupt in the studio; sometimes a chorus of boos resound. Sometimes there's a little hesitation, a little pregnant pause, and that's usually when a project is drafted.

What's a project? Well, it may be one who was injured and played little his senior year. It may be an off- the field problem that lowered the player's draft status. It may be unfulfilled potential. And isn't that a lot like us with the Lord?

Even on our best days, we fall far short of what God expects from us. And what right does He have to hold our feet to the fire? Every right if we are born or begotten of Him. He who sent His Son to die for us. And like projects we get injured, we get our feelings hurt, maybe by the pastor, maybe by someone at church and so we may not play. We may ride the pines, but the pews. Off-field problems, oh yes, we may have those, too. Does that lower our status in God's eyes? Not if we repent, not if we turn from our sin. Unfulfilled potential. Certainly. The song sung by children, "He's Still Working on Me," should not be limited to age. We're lifetime projects for God. But He's a loving God who sees what we don't. When we don't love ourselves very much at all, He does.

Plus, the eye has not seen and the mind cannot conceive of the wonderful things that God has prepared for those who love Him. (1 Cor. 2:9) In His eyes, we're all Number One on His draft board.