Isn't it a nice feeling to have your act together? Don’t you just relish those times when you are on schedule and everything is complete? It’s such a great feat to have your house and family in order. It is an accomplishment to have your surroundings and life being perfect and whole. A real triumph, isn’t it?
No, seriously. I’m asking. I want to know since I’ve never experienced it!
In the first chapter of James, we are encouraged to be joyful when our faith is tried because this works endurance within us. This endurance then helps grow us to become perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. I know that James was imparting important truth when he wrote these verses. Sometimes, however, I think we allow the small things to try our faith and to rob us from being perfect and complete and our neglect continues to keep us lacking.
Let me explain what I mean.
I have a terrible habit. When the toilet paper roll runs
I walk by the load of clothes that needs to be washed. I think about those thank you notes that haven’t been written. I remember that I haven’t called my friend in California for over a month. I find the invitation for a birthday party that was last week. I kick the pile of magazines over that needed to be recycled. AND, I have an article due that I haven’t started to write!
Those kinds of things just make you sigh every time you see them or think of them. You look at them and know that things are incomplete. The things you think of which makes you think about what you’re lacking. It’s these little incompletes that rob us of serving our family completely without lacking.
If you noticed, most of the things that are incomplete usually aren’t that big of deal. That’s what is so strange. If the incompletes were a lot of effort or took a lot of time or money, it might be more understandable. Instead, incompletes are usually small things, but it’s the small things which add up. A little lack here and a little lack there end up becoming a major deficit—not only in the things that need to be done but in our spirit as well.
Why do we let this deficit happen? I think it’s because we get tired. We become weary, and when you’re weary it’s often the small things that get overlooked or neglected. Shortcuts we take which end up piling up as undones. We need to remember not [to] grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up (Gal. 6:9).
I am ready to work on being more complete and lacking nothing. Here are some ideas I’ve being putting into practice in regards to becoming more COMPLETE.
C—Complete, lacking nothing is a process. Remember no one has their act totally together this side of heaven.
O—One thing at a time will do. Things don’t usually get left undone all at once. Usually it’s one thing here and one thing there. Completing them can be done one thing here and one thing there, too.
M—Make a list of incomplete things that need to be done as you think of them. You’re less likely to forget or ignore them if the items are written down.
P—Pray. Ask God to remind you of all the little things and give you the energy and desire to do them.
L—Little things add up both negatively and positively. Do a several little things, and you’ll have made a big step in becoming more complete.
E—Erase some of the items. I’ve been meaning to write some thank you notes since CHRISTMAS. I think it’s probably too late now and the sincere verbal thanks I gave them back then will have to do. Give yourself permission to take some things off your list.
T—Take inventory of the importance of each item. Some things really are worth more effort than others. If you have to choose between calling a sick friend or doing a page of scrapbooking from last July 4th, people should win every time.
E—Early is the best way to deal with many incompletes. Some items became more work or harder the longer you put it off. The earlier you deal with something that is undone the sooner you’ll be in the positive.
If you go into my bathroom right now, the toilet paper is on the roll, and the pile of magazines in the living room is no longer there. Each time I do an undone, it is one less thing I lack. I can relish becoming more complete in my roles as wife, mother, and daughter of the King. I now trust that I will reap what I sow if I don’t weary.
Next will be the pile of laundry!
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