I sat in my chair last Tuesday morning contemplating my second surgery in eight days scheduled for that afternoon. Thankfully, this was only a patch to repair a complication created by the more involved surgery the week before. There was a chance the original surgery would need to be redone, but the doctor, after examination, determined that would not be necessary.
Still that patch meant another day without food or water, another IV, another anesthesia and another recovery room trying to wake up and become alert enough to be released. It also pushed out the recovery period one more week into the first week of September.
I’m not allowed to lift anything heavier than a gallon of milk, no vacuuming or pushing heavy shopping carts, no riding horses or motorcycles and no walking on my treadmill. Still I can walk and climb stairs as my strength returns, and for that I am grateful. (I think I might even be grateful about the “no vacuuming” restriction!)
Now that the second surgery is behind me, I’m looking forward to an enhanced life where I can finish my walk. Paul on his way to Jerusalem asked the Ephesian elders to meet him along the way. In his closing remarks to them, he reminded them of his desire to finish. “I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me-the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.” [Acts 20:24]
Paul not only held himself to a good finish, he held others to the same standard. “Tell Archippus: ‘See to it that you complete the work you have received in the Lord.’” [Col 4:17]
We need to finish well. God has given us a purpose for our life, an individual work to do. I want “to see to it that [I] complete the work [I] received in the Lord.”
