“I’m so done with this!”
I said the words aloud to the air above my head just a couple of weeks ago. I might have shouted them.
My frustration ran over as I worked in the shop room at home, the place where we ran an internet business for several years after closing our local retail business. Standing there, gazing at the incredible mess, I saw no way to ever have a usable space again.
I meant the words. I was ready to walk away, leaving the mayhem behind forever. Let the kids deal with it after I’m gone.
“So done!”
But, it wasn’t true.
I wasn’t done at all. I hadn’t accomplished anything I had come down here for. Oh, I had moved a few things from one side of the room to another. That stack under the window had started on the desk. Now, it might stay where it was for another couple of years. That would be okay with me!
I usually tell people I love words. I like to play with them, teasing out meanings and quirky uses. But, sometimes the words catch me at my own game.
Done means finished. It implies completion. Somehow though, when I use that phrase, “I’m so done with this,” it means, “I quit!”
“I quit!”
It doesn’t sound nearly as weighty as “I’m so done.” And, it certainly doesn’t imply that I’ve accomplished anything.
You’ll be happy to learn that I’ve worked out a plan. I’m setting a goal, not to tackle the entire space, but to move out at least one item a day until the task is complete.
No one else would know it to look at the room, but I’ve made (with a fair amount of help from the Lovely Lady and others) enough progress to be encouraged when I walk in now.
And, I’m looking forward to the day when I can turn the meaning of those words around and stand in the room saying, “I’m done with this!”
Done!
Finished!
Complete!
I spoke with a young friend today, realizing that she is struggling a bit right now and I said similar words.
“He’s not done with you yet!”
We say that about God sometimes. What we mean by the words is that He isn’t finished with what He’s doing. And, He’s not.
The apostle for whom I was named said similar words over two thousand years ago in his letter to the folks at Philippi.
“And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.” (Philippians 1:6, NLT)
We somehow have an image, a dream really, of the process being once and done. Bam! God speaks and we’re a finished product.
That’s not how this life in Him works at all.
Step by step, day by day, with a long obedience in the same direction, we are being changed into the person He intended for us to become.
The phrase that comes so easily to our lips—”He’s not done with me yet.”—covers both meanings. First, He’s not finished with what He’s doing for and in us. And secondly, He will never—NEVER—say, “I’m so done with you!”
“He has said, ‘I will never leave you and I will never abandon you.’“
(Hebrews 13:5b, NET)
He’s going to stick with the project! Yes, it may take longer than we want; the process may be more painstaking than we anticipated. But, He will never quit and walk away from us.
We sat with our old friends around the table last night and I read words (you can read them for yourself down below) from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to them (I know, weird table conversation, huh?) from The Village Blacksmith. They’re good words for us to remember, but I think we may need to amend them a bit.
Mr. Longfellow suggested that each day should see the end of the job we began that morning. I have a feeling we simply need to see forward progress, perhaps a lot—maybe just a tiny step ahead, on the task at hand.
We keep moving toward the goal, toward the prize.
It’s up there—ahead of us.
And, we’re not done yet.
He isn’t either.
Oh. I’ll keep working on the shop room, too. Maybe the kids won’t have to deal with it after all.
“Toiling,—rejoicing,—sorrowing,
Onward through life he goes;
Each morning sees some task begin,
Each evening sees it close;
Something attempted, something done,
Has earned a night’s repose.”
(from The Village Blacksmith, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
“Dimidium facti qui coepit habet” (He who begins is half done.)
(from the Roman poet, Horace)
© Paul Phillips. He’s Taken Leave. 2024. All Rights Reserved.
