This is what Cole's basketball hoop should look like when I finish it. It's been waiting for my attention for about 6 months. Talk about a life shortener! Every time I step over it I'm filled with a sense of failure to finish.
The second unfinished project in our home is a grand cause of stress because it must be maneuvered around in our basement in order to reach the freezer. Each time Gretchen asks one of the children or me to retrieve some frozen item, we have to step over the parts and pieces of the unboxed yet unassembled...
...filing cabinet.
It's an Ikea model which means huge amounts of assembly required. It not only cries out to me to assemble it, it sings of promises of improved organization.
We learned somewhere along the way that the various "life shorteners" we deal with in our lives actually take a toll on our health and our general sense of well being. When a "life shortener" is completed in our lives, we happily give it a new name. We call it "a personal victory" and celebrate its completion. What we are really celebrating is the end of the stress that the unfinished task was creating. Instead of the expected dread, we experience a sense of victory and accomplishment.
The sermon today was ultimately not about life shorteners, but about the Life Giver who requires strong finishes from His followers. He doesn't want us to get bogged down with spiritual life shorteners like ingratitude, bitterness, unforgiveness, selfishness, pride, or any others for that matter. As this new week awaits us, I urge you to deal with the spiritual life shorteners that may be stealing your joy in the Lord. Would that we like Paul in 2 Timothy 4:7
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.As for me...I'm off to put a file cabinet together!
