On Being God’s Unfinished Work of Art
I am one of God’s unfinished works of art! That is a truth I first heard during the final session of Second Cohort of the Catholic Women’s Leadership Program “CWLP”, in 2019. It resonated with me then and does to this day, which I will explain further…
Feeling I had made a big mistake applying for the CWLP because of all the well-educated and amazing women I was placed with, I admit I proceeded with caution. I know that God knows what He is doing, and I learned was not alone in my insecurities. That meant I must be where I am meant to be. But understanding something intellectually is one thing. Believing it in your heart is quite another.
As we began being fed by our Leading Learners, I began to see women who were much like myself who had landed in the same place as me from very different paths. God, in His perfect wisdom revealed what a blessing each and every woman was as we began to share and grow together.
I still consider myself a fairly new Catholic having been baptized and brought into the family in 2015. Before that I am certain I was a “practicing non-Catholic”! I didn’t know a thing about the Catholic Church, or any religion really, but I knew God was always around. I would experience Him in what I called “God moments”. And when my late husband would take me to Mass, I would sob, knowing God was talking directly to me.
Since my entry into the Church, I have not looked back, and I try not to stand still for very long either. I want to run and jump into the Lord’s arms and never leave His peace and love. I want to live in a Catholic bubble!
As wonderful a sentiment as that is, alas, I live in the “flesh” and can only imagine the beauty of all our Lord has to offer, should I be deemed worthy.
The CWLP was amazing not only because God was a part of it, but because He chose brilliant women who led us through concepts I was not familiar with. He gathered our cohort women who shared unreservedly with compassion and vulnerability, and those months together will always be a treasured gift from our Father.
On that closing session of the program, which was online due to the pandemic, one of the things we discussed was “what now?”. How were we each of us going to go forward and use the leadership gifts we had been forming?
As it happened, a good friend Nancy, was in touch not long after the program ended, with something God put on her heart, and we began to discuss the “what now”. There is no question that God’s hand was in all of it. She had this idea that women were starved for Jesus, desperately needing to reconnect with and come to know the depth of our faith and the love our Lord has for us.
That began our ministry, God’s Unfinished Works of Art. We are three women, who love Jesus and want very woman we meet to become the masterpiece God created her to be!
Both Nancy and I were blessed to be part of the first National Convention team in 2021, post Covid. As a wrap up for the team, we offered a retreat weekend at Seton House in Kelowna. By the grace of God, that weekend was full of opportunity where, as women, we rejoiced in His goodness and celebrated His love for us.
Since that weekend, we have been blessed with invitations to share more of His love with women and have developed into a “travelling ministry” of sorts. Some of our retreat titles include Finding Jesus Right Beside You, Nothing Else, Evangelization, Embracing God’s Plan, Beloved, At His Feet and Nourishing Hope. And it is ALL Him. All of it. There is nothing that we can do, or that comes from us that isn’t given by the Holy Spirit. And we are truly blessed. We have received the blessing of our Bishop Joseph to go forth with this mission.
As I ramble on, I cannot leave out saying how much of a role the CWLP played in not only my confidence going forward in this ministry, but in trusting that God places me where He wants me to be. When His plan turns another corner, may I be open and receptive to the prompting of the Holy Spirit. May I run continually into His arms, ready to experience “sitting in the tension”, embracing the “liminal space” with an “open mind, open heart and open will”, to “let go and let come”, and so much more the CWLP gifted me with.
May the peace of our beloved Jesus be with you always and all ways!
Christine