Wednesday, January 3, 2018

“And in this matter I am giving my advice: it is appropriate for you who began last year not only to do something but even to desire to do something— now finish doing it, so that your eagerness may be matched by completing it according to your means.” (1 Corinthians 8:10 -11)

                If there is a problem being retired is that I have the best of intentions to start some project and then I instantly find or make an excuse not to get started, never mind complete it. This past year I intended to build some book shelves. Didn’t do it. I was going to re-stain the dining room furniture. Didn’t do it. There were several small repairs that I was going to get around to doing. Didn’t do it. I was going to start walking more for exercise. Didn’t do it.

                So here in a brand spanking new year, am I doomed to repeat the same old pattern or can I not only desire to do something but finish doing it? Time will tell.

                I have been working on a 2000 piece jig saw puzzle for the last month. It is turning out to be one of the harder puzzles I have ever tackled. The puzzle takes up a good part of the dining room table. (There – that’s why I didn’t get around to the re-staining.) I am bound and determined to finish it. I have never given up on a jigsaw puzzle, including one that was two-sided with the same picture.  I am not a particularly patient person, but I will persevere when it comes to jig saw puzzles. There is much satisfaction in finishing a hard one.

                So why can’t I start and finish a more meaningful task? Do you have that problem?  Are there things you have started and can’t finish? Are there commitments you have made and can’t complete? Are there promises you have made and now can’t or won’t carry through on them?  Have you the best of intentions and little desire to act on them? Is the spirit willing but the flesh weak?

                One of my favourite parables from Jesus concerns the little fig tree that wouldn’t bear figs (Luke 13: 6 – 9). I am not sure why the man was planting a fig tree in his vineyard but he waited for three years and the tree was still very unproductive. So, he told his gardener to cut the tree down. “Why should it be wasting the soil?”  But the gardener wants to give the tree another year in which he will try coax a little fruit from the tree with some manure and TLC, with the promise that if it doesn’t produce he will chop it down.

                We don’t know whether the tree ever ended up bearing  fruit. But we get the point that faithful lives are meant to produce fruit during the  year. It is not enough to simply be a person of faith in words only but we should strive to finish the work that Christ has placed on our shoulders and in our hands – to make a difference, not just take up space and wasting the good soil of his Kingdom Garden. “Let your light so shine before others, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16)

                May your 2018 be a meaningful, productive, fruitful year and may you finish well those things that you start.

Dale