Finish What You Started

“He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it.”  Philippians 1:6

Many years ago, on the west side of the road that runs from my parents’ home to town, someone began to build a house.  And many years later, the house still was not complete.  I know because with several school bus drivers and then with my older brother and sister and then behind the wheel myself, I traveled by the site twice a day for over a decade and stared as the long-exposed foundation was finally lined with a few framed walls which slowly morphed into a bricked-over but empty shell.  And then it sat.  Week after week.  Month after month.  Year after year.  A project someone started but failed to finish.

The half-built house reminded me of a story…“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish’”(Luke 14:28-30). Through the years, this famous parable of Jesus has been pondered by several considering discipleship, but today it’s being considered by one pondering devotions.

Early every morning and late every night when I log on and off my laptop, one icon on the screen seems bigger and more beckoning than the rest—the folder labeled “Mark Devotions.”  It was created in January and for the next five months was filled with reflections on the most compact and action-packed of the four gospels, but then came my daughter’s graduation and summer vacation and my words begin to wane.  Plans to resume writing when school started back have been halted by an unforeseen overload of lesson plans, an extra class, curriculum creation, and a steady stream of swim meets.  While all are legitimate reasons for the delay, I can’t keep putting off until tomorrow what really should be done today.

I need the discipline of pondering God’s Word in my heart and putting my words on a page, and I desire the delight of those very same things.  My mind misses the continual contemplation of a verse, a phrase, or a promise, and my spirit longs for the deep pleasure of how Scripture can be expounded and exalted by the simple combination of nouns, verbs, and a few appropriate adjectives.  And so, after that long and unsolicited explanation, I will begin to finish what I’ve begun.

Perhaps it’s a good time for all of us to think about those projects we like to say are “in process.”  Few can truthfully tout we have none which are unfinished.  For some, what lies undone is physical—a half-organized shed or a partially completed scrapbook.  For others, it’s relational—calls not made, notes not written, or an apology never offered.  In one way or another (and usually both and many), we all have stopped some stuff we need to start back up.  The break isn’t always bad, and time away can bring clarity and renewed energy, but there comes a moment (which for me is today) when we must pick up the hammer, pick up the phone, or pick up the pen, and begin again.  

The One who began a good work in us will be faithful to complete it.

Let’s not stop until we finish what we’ve started for Him, in Him, and through Him.

By the way, the house by the highway was finally finished just a few years ago.  It’s rarely too late to resume!