Sweetly New

Taking a glance back can be very eye opening. Some months ago I dug into some of my old journals. I was amazed at what I found. At the time I was feeling a little bit lost - like I had somehow lost my faith footing. But after seeing that my God and I had spent the past decade walking hand and hand, through the thick and thin, somehow my faith in "faith" became new again.

Post surgery has provided me with a lot of time on my hands, and it's been nice. I could do without feeling like I've been hit by a truck . . . or maybe a boy on a bicycle . . . but the couch provides me with lots of time to think. I have a very introspective personality, and when I don't take time to simply think, I tend to run on empty. God has proven to be in the details, and without adequate think-time it is easy for me to miss little miracles.

"Finish what you've started." The phrase began to follow me around like fatigue - from room to room. Walking in integrity . . . yes, that is what it means to be Christ's ambassador. Integrity takes on many faces, but what it all boils down to is this. Walk the talk. Do what you said you were going to do. Finish what you've started. With this nudge, I see that it is time to tackle a stack of books half-read, and a writing project (that I won't make any mention of) . . . the list could go on.

What have you started that you've failed to finish? If you are anything like me, there is a long list of half-dones strangling the life out of you. Do you have a short attention span too, jumping from one project to another without finding completion in a single one? Through the years, God has taught me that it is in the effort, in the working when you don't "feel like it" that character is built.

Well, I'm off to finish a book I started just the other day. After that, I will tackle the rest of the stack, knowing that each one holds something God wants to teach me. Some of God's greatest lessons have to be learned over and over again. I am always so amazed at how sweetly NEW He manages to make each one.