Cleaning Up the Leftovers
It’s intriguing when things are moving along well & we forget the things that need to be picked up or cleaned up along the way. We can get caught up in the goodness & blessings, forgetting the things that are perhaps left hanging in the wake of blessings. Or maybe we’ve turned a corner in life from a season of stress or heartache & we are so busy now enjoying a new experience that we forget the thing that was still hanging out, waiting for us to complete. It’s like the part of us that suddenly remembers that we might have left the stove on, forgot to lock the door, or left a window open because we were so busy enjoying the warm spring breeze ushering in a season of new birth we forgot to latch it closed again. Perhaps nothing major will go wrong with what was left unfinished. The stove will be extra hot. Today’s not the day a thief will try our front door. Monsoon season is months away, so a rainstorm won’t cause damage to the open window.
In seasons of change, when there seem to be a few extra irons in the fire, it’s important to finish what was started so that the new thing can have the suitable attention, care, & focus for full fruition. Nehemiah, the Old Testament cupbearer to the Persian king Ataxeres, was convicted that he needed to rebuild the walls around Jerusalem. So he got permission from the foreign king to return to the homeland of his people & tackle this daunting task. With much help, he completed the work before him. However, along the way, there were clearly smaller tasks of recruiting help, laying out the plan of building, & avoiding the pitfalls of distraction created by others. There were many irons in the fire of his work even as the season of joy was being birthed as the people of Israel were returning home from generations in exile. There were numerous projects to complete, from the restoration of the Temple to the plowing of the fields, & everything between & beyond. Yet Nehemiah kept the course, seeing the work through, turning off the stove, locking the door, & shutting the window even as they celebrated the renewal of the covenant under the leadership of the priest Ezra. Perhaps had he been distracted, nothing significant would’ve gone wrong in constructing the city’s walls. However, raiders might have come & the destruction could’ve been assured all over again for another generation.
What sits still waiting for completion in your life? What is God calling for you to return to complete, even as you are standing in the new creation & beginning of the next chapter of life? This isn’t a call to live in the past or remain stuck in the pain of things the Lord is healing. This is a reminder to consider what might be lingering, waiting for the final piece to happen so the chapter might be closed on that season even as the new season is in full swing. As a church, we have many good & even great things happening. Even still, there is the business of finishing out the finances & reports of the last year, ongoing analysis of where we are & where we’d like to go, & the ever-evolving process of what this Church’s identity is as we worship in this place of temporary permanence. If we were to stop caring for where we have been, namely temporary buildings & the worship practices of our youth, we wouldn’t be able to build a place for the grandchildren of tomorrow to go to & learn about Christ. In this way, we need to clean up the leftovers of our pasts, both personally & collectively, so we can truly enjoy the season of new life & energy our Creator is making new in our midst today.
In Christ’s Love,
