Discipleship 101: Just A Little Touch Up

In March of 2003 I had Lasik corrective eye surgery.  After wearing glasses and contacts for so long, it was great to no longer have the need for those things.  Although I still wear glasses sometimes, because my sight has regressed over the last 5-6 years, I can still see much better than I could before.

But a few months after the surgery, my vision was not quite as crisp as I would have liked.  Basically, it was 20/20, though it could have been a little better.  So if I chose to, I could go back to the surgeon so he could (in my doctor’s words) “do a little touch up”.  Nothing to it…just a little touch up!  Forgive me for my concern, but I am having a difficult time referring to someone “opening” my eyeball and shooting a laser into it as “just a little touch up”.

You have heard the expression “there’s no such thing as minor surgery, unless it’s being performed on someone else”.  Well, that is certainly true.  Any kind of surgery or “procedure” is important and to be entered into cautiously, even if it is just called a “touch up”.  No matter how easy the surgery is; there is always a risk.

Spiritually, we need a touch up from time to time, a refining of the “work in progress” that we are.  When it comes to Christlike maturity, we are just not as crisp as we should be.  So every now and then, God needs to refine us, to mold us more into His image.  The problem is, we have to be willing.  Just as my eye surgeon could not “touch me up” without my approval, God cannot mold and refine us without our willingness.

So what is the best way to be refined, or “touched up”?  (Notice, I did not ask for the easiest way.  The easiest way is seldom the best way!)  One way that God refines us is through trials and suffering, or brokenness (see Isaiah 48:10 and Zechariah 13:9).  While this method is not my personal favorite, it is effective.  1 Peter 4:12-13 reads, “Dear friends, don't be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. Instead, be very glad--because these trials will make you partners with Christ in his suffering, and afterward you will have the wonderful joy of sharing his glory when it is displayed to all the world.”

A little refining is good.  We all have things that need to be changed, ways that we can become more Christlike.  Being “touched up” is not so bad.  Trials are good for us.  And though I eventually chickened out and did not return to my eye surgeon for a touch up, God is always welcome to refine me!  Sometimes it is painful.  Sometimes it is humbling.  But it is always good, and right, and for the best.  Lord, refine me!