When I was a boy I couldn't wait to grow up, get to the next level of school or the next awaiting adventure. As I got into high school I couldn't wait to go to college. I knew that my life was just starting and I wasn't finished yet. I went away to college and my only goal was to get out so I could find a ministry job and begin my career. Once I was out on my own and starting my career, I couldn't wait to get married to Leah. It all seemed so unfinished. After marriage and a few more years at that first job I couldn't wait for us to move and I started a new job. While there Leah became pregnant...with twins and I couldn't wait to be a dad. A couple of years later I finished my Masters of Divinity and I couldn't wait to preach. a couple more years after that and we move again so I can start preaching. Once the job began I couldn't wait for everything to fall into place and the church just take off. With every step, it all seemed so...unfinished. Yet along the entire way the truth of things actually becoming finished was never a thought or desire based in reality.
I know that life is never going to be finished. And yet as we look all around us, it seems that that is the goal. Everyone wants to be finished. We are impatient for whatever that thing is to start and then we become impatient for it to be finished. We long for the cool of winter only after several weeks in, complaining that summer hasn't made it yet. We are excited for our children to take the field, court, floor, or stage, only to be relieved when the season or production is done.
One of the flaws of Christianity is that are impatient with being like Christ and then as soon as we seem to be on some kind of path (good or bad) we cannot wait for it to be over. Come Lord Jesus! We display ourselves to the world as discontent. When things are a bump or a disaster we want it to be finished. When things are going well and we have found our spiritual high it increases our desire to go be with Jesus right now! Being with Jesus is not the problem. The problem comes with the assumption that it takes eternity to do so.
"being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." -Philipians 1:6
The goal was never to finish while here on this earth. When this particular text was written, The Apostle Paul most likely assumed that Jesus' return would come in his lifetime. However, the truth of this text still stands as we continue to wait for that same return. Christ, God in the flesh, Spirit incarnate, began in us a work to do...a good work. That good work isn't a task to check off the list and to finish. It is a desire, a journey, a life to be lived. The completion is not perfection, but rather a proleptic moment when Christ does a completed work in all of creation. The work has been done, is still doing, and still to be done.
We remain unfinished, not because we haven't reached the golden standard of behavior or spiritual ecstasy, but rather because God is has not released his final call for what has already been done to come to finalization.
My encouragement to you is to live your life for each day and how you can show the love of Christ to all those around you. To stand up for those that cannot stand up for themselves. To treat others with grace and mercy. Live life unfinished on purpose, so no one can confuse our journey with Jesus for a goal to reach or a standard to perform. If we are truly made in His image, then we weren't made for one single purpose, we were made for all purposes to continually live...the Christlike path.
One of the worst things that has happened to Christianity is that we have made it a practice and a thing to do, rather than a way to be a life that's lived. Apostle Paul never considered living simply for the fact to go to heaven. Paul lived to be more like Christ and to know Him better each day.
Next time you find yourself wrapped up in the idea of just wanting that next thing to finish, remember we are unfinished people that live for a finished God and we do so with great anticipation and yet with a great love of living.
I know that life is never going to be finished. And yet as we look all around us, it seems that that is the goal. Everyone wants to be finished. We are impatient for whatever that thing is to start and then we become impatient for it to be finished. We long for the cool of winter only after several weeks in, complaining that summer hasn't made it yet. We are excited for our children to take the field, court, floor, or stage, only to be relieved when the season or production is done.
One of the flaws of Christianity is that are impatient with being like Christ and then as soon as we seem to be on some kind of path (good or bad) we cannot wait for it to be over. Come Lord Jesus! We display ourselves to the world as discontent. When things are a bump or a disaster we want it to be finished. When things are going well and we have found our spiritual high it increases our desire to go be with Jesus right now! Being with Jesus is not the problem. The problem comes with the assumption that it takes eternity to do so.
"being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." -Philipians 1:6
The goal was never to finish while here on this earth. When this particular text was written, The Apostle Paul most likely assumed that Jesus' return would come in his lifetime. However, the truth of this text still stands as we continue to wait for that same return. Christ, God in the flesh, Spirit incarnate, began in us a work to do...a good work. That good work isn't a task to check off the list and to finish. It is a desire, a journey, a life to be lived. The completion is not perfection, but rather a proleptic moment when Christ does a completed work in all of creation. The work has been done, is still doing, and still to be done.
We remain unfinished, not because we haven't reached the golden standard of behavior or spiritual ecstasy, but rather because God is has not released his final call for what has already been done to come to finalization.
My encouragement to you is to live your life for each day and how you can show the love of Christ to all those around you. To stand up for those that cannot stand up for themselves. To treat others with grace and mercy. Live life unfinished on purpose, so no one can confuse our journey with Jesus for a goal to reach or a standard to perform. If we are truly made in His image, then we weren't made for one single purpose, we were made for all purposes to continually live...the Christlike path.
One of the worst things that has happened to Christianity is that we have made it a practice and a thing to do, rather than a way to be a life that's lived. Apostle Paul never considered living simply for the fact to go to heaven. Paul lived to be more like Christ and to know Him better each day.
Next time you find yourself wrapped up in the idea of just wanting that next thing to finish, remember we are unfinished people that live for a finished God and we do so with great anticipation and yet with a great love of living.
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