2010 is officially half over; or if you’re a glass-half-full kind of person like me you might say, there’s still half a year left for me to successfully complete my goals! How are yours coming along? Do you remember what they were?

I pulled up my goals on the computer to review what my optimistic mind imagined six months ago. Back then, I saw myself accomplishing fifteen items in three categories. I’m sure an expert would say that’s too many to focus on, but having led a school campus in planning and executing multi-page plans for nine years, I felt pretty comfortable with my one-pager.

My goals comprise three broad areas: personal, professional, and prayer. In the personal area, I address things such as wellness, productivity, personal growth, finances and family. In the professional area, I set specific work outcomes I want to accomplish by year’s end. Of course all of these are birthed and bathed in prayer. But there are other items to continually focus on in prayer that are as of yet non-actionable. These go in my third column.

It’s quite interesting to review and reflect often during the year, especially at the halfway point. Not only do I seek to discover what I’ve done, but why I’ve done the things I’ve done, and why I haven’t done the rest. Perhaps some goals are too lofty, some too easily attainable. Maybe I’ve lacked resources, or had an overabundance of unexpected blessings.

This year I learned that I lean toward one area more than another.  I’ve had such good practice at professional goals that I continue to be inclined in that direction, while my personal goals go on the back burner. I remembered that by accomplishing my personal goals, I will likely increase production in the professional arena.  I also realized that although I’m an optimist, I set the bar too low in some areas. This probably reveals that in writing goals, I tend to think about my limited power rather than God’s supernatural power. Finally, I was refreshed to reread my prayer focuses and pause to consider God’s kind responses. How blessed we are to be able to communicate with our loving Father in heaven.

Stopping to reflect on my goals mid-year allows me to reevaluate and revise if necessary. I ask questions like:

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God likens His refinement of our souls to that of silver in the fire. As silver heats, impurities separate from the precious metal and are then removed.

"He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the LORD offerings in righteousness.” Malachi 3:3

When I think about my own refining, I imagine my Lord sitting patiently over me with a spoon-like utensil. As He sees the useless dross rise to the surface, He carefully removes it. With longsuffering, He repeats this process over and over again with painstaking precision for each impurity, and continues to this day.

I have to wonder about others who observe me in my impure flesh as I endure this painful process. I wonder if they remember that I am under refinement as they see my dross rise to the surface when I’m heated and under pressure. I wonder if some have lacked the Father‘s patience for a shiny reflection of Him to appear in me, and instead, disgusted by my lack of polish, decided to avoid the view.

The thought that follows is significantly worse. From how many others have I turned away with disapproving repulsion when their dross dulled His image in them?

My friend Tami Heim tweeted this powerful quote yesterday: "When we dismiss people out of hand because of their apparent woundedness, we stunt their lives by ignoring their gifts, which are often buried in their wounds." –Henri Nouwen

Like dross, wounds are not pretty, so we often turn our heads. Physically speaking, wounds invite impurities – or dross – into the body, paving the way for infection. Our human tendency is to avoid infection. Yet without attention, a wound turned infectious may prove deadly. Instead, a wound must be cleansed so healing can occur, just as silver must be refined to shine. Nouwen’s words cause me to writhe in the thought of having stunted others' growth by turning my eyes from their precious potentials because the less-than-precious was more visible! Oh Lord, please forgive.

It would seem we heap impurity upon impurity, dross upon dross. But God is continually working to remove it all. He has planned in advance for the error of our wounded ways. As we walk with Him on earth, we are yet injured and contaminated, in need of His ongoing cleansing and purification. But one day, our refinement – our healing – will be complete. When we finish the course, having been tested by fire, all dross will be removed, all wounds will be healed, all relationships will be restored, and all reflections of Him will be of spotless clarity. Oh, what a brighter day that will be!