Finishing Well Means Finishing

 

We began well. With great intentions.

I know myself. Following through and finishing a project isn’t always a priority. I get started on something, go at it with grit and gusto, knowing exactly what I am hoping to accomplish.

Too often I lose steam, become bored, or the situation becomes more complicated and significantly more difficult than I anticipated.

I quit.

When we began the work of cleaning out the garage, we accomplished a lot in a short amount of time.

We didn’t finish in a day. As I was in and out of the garage the rest of that week, I’d gaze about at all that had been done.

I was fine with it as it was. We’d done well. My kids had sacrificed a whole day to help John and me do a job we’d put off for over a decade. It was enough.

They returned a week later to finish the job. What I had settled for was enough to make them laugh.

Which they did.

The guys built sturdy shelves that will hold up to any hurricane or child tornado that happened upon it. The girls and I bought clear bins, all the same size, that would store our stuff easily, allow everything to be readily seen, and then labeled the bins so there’d be no confusion about contents.

Having never been that organized in my life, I stood back in awe. I’ve been the kind who finds a surface or a spare bin and throws whatever I don’t want in it because of convenience. Of course, that meant searching through piles of junk to find what we needed.

Or we’d replace it.

We have eight hammers. Nobody needs eight hammers.

My family intended us to finish this project well. To not only clear the garage but to make it useable and easy to navigate.

Too often in life, I’ve settled for what seems enough or have quit because I didn’t want to handle what appeared to be too hard or uncomfortable. I’d get by with less effort, but it typically caused more disappointment and frustration because things just didn’t end well. I’d have a bad attitude about people who did a half-hearted job in things I was passionate about, but my own half-hearted efforts often discouraged family and friends because of my lack of follow-through.

That’s a character issue.

People long for those they consider safe people. Those they can trust to do as they’ve promised, who will keep confidences, who will be whole-heartedly on their side. Not condoning bad behavior or mistakes, but not condemning it either.

It’s hard to find those people. We’re all messy and shattered, and our personal shards stick others even when we don’t want them to.

But God.

He alone is One who sees all of who and what we are and chooses to extend grace when there’s nothing we can do to earn it. He never goes back on a promise. He is who He says He is and acts with full justice and compassion.

We don’t. People fail one another and themselves. No matter how much we care about someone.

What a difference it could make if we knew we always had Someone on our side who would never fail us.

His follow-through is eternal.