Right Now

As I contemplate Part Two of my life verse for this year, woohoo!  I get to use another of my favorite all-time verses to go along with it.  Hot dog!  Can you guess what it is?  No?  Well, let’s re-read my life verse and then see if you get it, keeping in mind we’re going through this step by step.  Ready?

“The best thing you can do right now is to finish what you started last year and not let those good intentions grow stale. Your heart’s been in the right place all along. You’ve got what it takes to finish it up, so go to it. Once the commitment is clear, you do what you can, not what you can’t. The heart regulates the hands.” (2 Corinthians 8:10-12, The Message)

Did you guess correctly?  Here it is, one that is always a timely verse for us all (🕧):  

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:”  (Ecclesiastes 3:1, King James Version)

Timing is everything and the best thing I can do when?  Right now.  Not tomorrow.  Not in a little while.  Not when I get all this other fluff dealt with but right now.  How many times have I put things off because I just didn’t want to deal with them?  My sweater can answer you that.  It has sat on my dresser for many months, awaiting its chance to be taken care of so that it could be worn instead of bundled up, useless, not serving its purpose.  Just look at this picture and see how pretty it is, now that I have sewn it back together!  If I had left it there, then you wouldn’t be seeing this sweet picture, nor how it brings out the blue in my eyes to match those of the clouds and the river.😛

Now, obviously, when I chose this life verse about completing what I had started last year I had more on my mind than this sweater.  But I had--have!!--to start somewhere, right?  Why not begin with what’s staring me right in the face?  If you’ve been to my Pretty Purple Room lately, you would also see something...um, not quite completed but definitely gaining a sense of order!  You might be shocked to see my room is not as chaotic as it has been for a while now as I am endeavoring to make it orderly and to tie up the many loose ends in it.  I’ll be there for a while so look for me there when you need me.

As I close today’s blog, I want to encourage you to start.  Somewhere.  Look at that glaring thing that won’t leave you alone until you deal with.  Maybe it’s your checkbook that needs tidied up.  Maybe it’s your closet that needs cleaned out.  Your kitchen (which, by the way, I also recently tackled and my drawers sure are sweet now that my silverware is separated, my cabinets are better defined, and my junk drawer even has a separator to keep it in some sense of arrangement).  Maybe it’s your sewing pile or your private dreams of getting to “one day.”  Maybe it’s even those feelings you’ve been putting aside, putting off dealing with, because you know when you do, things will be different and that difference scares you.  But again friends, let me encourage you to make this the day that you start.  Don’t feel overwhelmed and try to do it all today but at least try to make a dent in it, would you?  I think you will be glad you did!

Let’s pray!

Dear Lord, thank You for gentle proddings to get my butt out of this recliner and into the work arena.  There is so much that I need to finish and You and I both know how often I look at those things and give up before even trying because it just seems too big, too much, and too tedious.  You have commanded me to finish what I began, just as Paul spoke of in his writings to Your children in our daily walks with You, in our race to complete the job You assigned for each of us.

Help us all, I ask, to not be quitters.  And no, I’m not just referring to the box of cookies, the pack of chips, or the candy from Christmas that needs to be  eaten.  Sadly, although I wrote that with teasing in mind, some of us would rather turn to the fun stuff to complete and ignore the less-fun things to do, the things that require discipline.  Help us to throw out the things that hinder us, that weigh us down (in more ways than one), and help us to not hang on to things, Lord, that should have been let go of a long time ago.  Mmn hmn.  Those things, Father, that only serve a purpose of harm because their reminders gently prick us of things we don’t need to be considering.  Prick, I say, because Lord You know if they were objects of comfort then they wouldn’t jab at us and open those wounds and irritate the scars that they initially left behind.

I love You, Lord God, and ask You to keep us on the ball.  Or in my case, in my Pretty Purple Room where so much still needs to be done. May the things I complete bring honor to You, satisfaction to me, and help others to see Your glory in my life is my earnest prayer.  In the abiding name of Christ Jesus I ask this:  amen.