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The older I get the more I discover that there is a universal constant in this world… our lives are unfinished. We like to make goals and achieve them, check the boxes that mark completion, and tie up every loose string with a bow. However, this unfortunately is rarely the case. Either our goals are too small, or our efforts will ultimately be met with the dull thud of temporary achievement, while the greater vision sits atop the high cupboards slowly collecting dust.
The wisdom writer offers these words: “All things are wearisome; Man is not able to tell it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, Nor is the ear filled with hearing.” The platitude is like the growl of an empty belly or the hollow lingering concuss of a bass drum. Never enough.
This is our third trip back to the island without my father, and much like the reminder of the field of this ministry, and I’m left wanting more, the memory of losing a loved one leaves all wishing, wanting more. Reuniting with one of my dear Bahamian brothers was concluded with the request to pray for his mother; she’s dying from breast cancer. He lamented that the time we have now is the only time we get. He said,” Lord willing we can always continue with our ambitions but the time with family is only ever so fleeting as when its gone.”
Unfinished… never enough.
I sat with Micah on the cusp of our cottage property eating chicken wings. I used to sit and pray here often, and I’d rest here after sweating buckets mowing. But that moment of gnawing gristle off these miniature chickens with my boy was probably one of my favorite moments at this spot. I can remember walking with my dad over this very same ground. He put his arm around me, and we prayed together for God to bless this land. Small moments, enjoyed in a blink and then spent, gone.
If God has placed eternity on the hearts of men (Ec 3:11), then we ought not be surprised by the emptiness and dissatisfaction that is so often the result of our endeavors. Like the body of a car that slowly rusts, or the clogged pipes of an old house, the task here is an exercise in futility – a dance with entropy.
For those in Christ, we have a living hope that can never spoil or fade or perish. However it is only realized in part. Therefore, we look towards the Day of redemption and speed its coming as we relinquish our plans and programs to the One who sees the endgame. Offer to God today your absolute best and expect that He will utilize it, not to your desired satisfaction, but yet with unseen effects that ripple into eternity. And in this struggle remember that you too are yet “unfinished.”
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
– 2 Corinthians 4:16-18