OK, today I want to talk to you about something I don't see a lot. Let's talk about finishing what you start. This may not be a real popular blog but I think many times God gives us great ideas and we start on a project. Then something happens and we can't find the time, energy, etc. to finish the project. I would love to point a finger at someone else and say that everyone but me is guilty of this but unfortunately if you point one finger at someone there are usually three pointed back at you.
So let's start with a couple of things that I can think of from my own life.
1. When I was in college at TCU, I was in ROTC. I thought it was cool to hang out with all these great guys and gals who were in excellent shape and play with guns. It was like being a kid all over again. The problem was I couldn't control my weight. If I had finished the program correctly, I would have been a second lieutenant in the US Army when I graduated. Pretty cool stuff right. I think so. Many of my friends from ROTC did just that and many are still in the Army doing very well. Who knows what I could have been. Maybe I could have been the next General Patton. OK, for all my ROTC buddies, we all know that was probably not going to happen but it could have. I basically quit the Army ROTC program because I could not control my weight. Now we will never know what I could have been in the Army because I didn't finish what I started.
2. I cannot tell you how many times I started to lose weight only to gain it all back plus some within a short time after I started. Why? Because I didn't finish changing the way I ate and I went back to where I was or worse. I could have been much happier but I didn't finish what I started.
3. I can't tell you how many books I didn't finish reading. A couple of times I quit reading them because I didn't like the book but many times I simply quit reading them. I would definitely have been smarter if I had and I need all the smarts I can get.
4. How many of us have made New Year's resolutions with the best intention of changing something about the way we live only to let things go right back to "normal" within a very short time. I know I am guilty of this more than once.
5. Now let me give you a situation that I face right now. I believe the Lord instructed me to write a book about how He helped me to lose a lot of weight. This happened several years ago and I did nothing with it for a long time. Finally in September of last year I started writing the book. I have a rough draft of the book that I think I finished around November 15th. Today I e-mailed it to a very special person for her to read. That was when I noticed the date of the last time I worked on it. I have let that book lay around for almost two months without ever working on getting an editor, a publisher or anything else. If I don't do something about this, the book could lay there for ever without me doing anything with it. That wouldn't be a very good thing. Why? Well let me say, I am not sure the book is any good because I wrote it a lot like I write this blog. But I will tell you this. The Lord gave me an assignment to write the book and if He gave it to me, He has a reason for it. What if there is someone who will actually read my book and God uses it to deliver that person from their weight issue? Let me ask the question a different way. What if I never do finish the book and someone who God wanted to read it never gets a chance. What if that person dies because of their weight issue and I could have made a difference in their life? Let's take it one step farther. What if that person was not a Christian when they died? Am I being a little over dramatic? Maybe but we will never know. The point is that God gave me an assignment to write a book. He didn't give me an assignment to start a book. See God always sees the end of a thing from the beginning. He is always figuring out how to finish what he starts. If it's good enough for Him it's more that good enough for me.
Let me begin to wrap this up by telling you about something I used to do at my church. We used to have a Christian business man's meeting in our church on a regular basis. Now this organization, the Provision Network, is much more than that but for simplicity sake I will stop there. At these meetings, I would have any number of people come up to me with great ideas. They would tell me the Lord told them to do this or that and the vast majority of the ideas sounded like good ones maybe even God ones. However, these same people would come up to me the next meeting with a completely different idea. I always wondered why God changed His mind about the first one. Just so you know, God never changes His mind. If He told you to do something, He means for you to do it.
I think what happened to them and certainly what happened to me in the examples I gave above is that I came up against a very dirty four letter word - Work. Remember, the only place that success comes before work is in the dictionary. I know I should have done a better of job of finishing what I started all those many times and I did not. I will definitely get back to work on that book.
Let me leave you with this. Even if you are someone who has never finished anything you thought you should do, one of the coolest things about God is he always has a plan for your life. So even if you fail at something, don't worry about it, he has another plan. But in order for us to be successful, we have to actually complete the plan He gives us and it will probably require work but the reward will be well worth it.
That's the Opinion of the Minion
So let's start with a couple of things that I can think of from my own life.
1. When I was in college at TCU, I was in ROTC. I thought it was cool to hang out with all these great guys and gals who were in excellent shape and play with guns. It was like being a kid all over again. The problem was I couldn't control my weight. If I had finished the program correctly, I would have been a second lieutenant in the US Army when I graduated. Pretty cool stuff right. I think so. Many of my friends from ROTC did just that and many are still in the Army doing very well. Who knows what I could have been. Maybe I could have been the next General Patton. OK, for all my ROTC buddies, we all know that was probably not going to happen but it could have. I basically quit the Army ROTC program because I could not control my weight. Now we will never know what I could have been in the Army because I didn't finish what I started.
2. I cannot tell you how many times I started to lose weight only to gain it all back plus some within a short time after I started. Why? Because I didn't finish changing the way I ate and I went back to where I was or worse. I could have been much happier but I didn't finish what I started.
3. I can't tell you how many books I didn't finish reading. A couple of times I quit reading them because I didn't like the book but many times I simply quit reading them. I would definitely have been smarter if I had and I need all the smarts I can get.
4. How many of us have made New Year's resolutions with the best intention of changing something about the way we live only to let things go right back to "normal" within a very short time. I know I am guilty of this more than once.
5. Now let me give you a situation that I face right now. I believe the Lord instructed me to write a book about how He helped me to lose a lot of weight. This happened several years ago and I did nothing with it for a long time. Finally in September of last year I started writing the book. I have a rough draft of the book that I think I finished around November 15th. Today I e-mailed it to a very special person for her to read. That was when I noticed the date of the last time I worked on it. I have let that book lay around for almost two months without ever working on getting an editor, a publisher or anything else. If I don't do something about this, the book could lay there for ever without me doing anything with it. That wouldn't be a very good thing. Why? Well let me say, I am not sure the book is any good because I wrote it a lot like I write this blog. But I will tell you this. The Lord gave me an assignment to write the book and if He gave it to me, He has a reason for it. What if there is someone who will actually read my book and God uses it to deliver that person from their weight issue? Let me ask the question a different way. What if I never do finish the book and someone who God wanted to read it never gets a chance. What if that person dies because of their weight issue and I could have made a difference in their life? Let's take it one step farther. What if that person was not a Christian when they died? Am I being a little over dramatic? Maybe but we will never know. The point is that God gave me an assignment to write a book. He didn't give me an assignment to start a book. See God always sees the end of a thing from the beginning. He is always figuring out how to finish what he starts. If it's good enough for Him it's more that good enough for me.
Let me begin to wrap this up by telling you about something I used to do at my church. We used to have a Christian business man's meeting in our church on a regular basis. Now this organization, the Provision Network, is much more than that but for simplicity sake I will stop there. At these meetings, I would have any number of people come up to me with great ideas. They would tell me the Lord told them to do this or that and the vast majority of the ideas sounded like good ones maybe even God ones. However, these same people would come up to me the next meeting with a completely different idea. I always wondered why God changed His mind about the first one. Just so you know, God never changes His mind. If He told you to do something, He means for you to do it.
I think what happened to them and certainly what happened to me in the examples I gave above is that I came up against a very dirty four letter word - Work. Remember, the only place that success comes before work is in the dictionary. I know I should have done a better of job of finishing what I started all those many times and I did not. I will definitely get back to work on that book.
Let me leave you with this. Even if you are someone who has never finished anything you thought you should do, one of the coolest things about God is he always has a plan for your life. So even if you fail at something, don't worry about it, he has another plan. But in order for us to be successful, we have to actually complete the plan He gives us and it will probably require work but the reward will be well worth it.
That's the Opinion of the Minion
Thank you. I needed this, especially after you read my rant about that story on my page. I enjoy reading your stuff and you've got a lot going for you. I'll try to do the same.
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