I have lived half of my life in Virginia, and the other half in North Dakota. My wife and I have lived the past 20 years in Chester, since our wedding in 1988. Our last move came during the Christmas ice storm of 1998. On the day of that Christmas eve, we left home early to stay with my wife's parents because the power was out throughout central Virginia. The overwhelming image that I remember from that Christmas eve, was the pine trees along the road, all bowed down with their tops close to the ground, from the load of ice; I was reminded that all of creation is humbled before the Lord, our Creator. I bowed likewise that Christmas, thankful to God for the family that He'd given to me; my wife and our girls, 8, 6, 4, and 2 years old that year. Ten years have past since that time, and I can say like in 1 Samuel 7:12, "Thus far the Lord has helped us."
Before I came to Virginia, I learned one valuable lesson to finish what I started. Since my childhood, I carried the loss of my mother and two brothers from a car accident. I lived with my father who was deeply broken by our loss, and at Christmas time, I was often filled with the grief of our loss. God gave me a good friend who shared Christ with me, and at Christmas time in 1984, we went from house to house, across the snow covered yards of our home town in North Dakota with the youth group, singing Christmas carrols. I read a version of the Christmas story from Philippians 2:5-11, and was encouraged to "...have the same attitute as Christ did when He emptied Himself of His place in heaven to come to earth."
That Christmas, I was finished with college and looking for work. I had just completed a 3 month tour with a Christian singing group and asked God to open the next door for my life. There was one thing I had left unfinished that had been a burden to me for the previous 5 years, the making of a classic roll-top desk as a gift to my father. I had started making it in a shop class in high school, and completed everything except the final sanding and finishing. While moving the unfinished desk in the back of a pickup truck, a gust of wind picked it up and scattered it across the two lane country road. I looked in horror in the rear view mirror, knowing that the task was going to be nearly impossible. I spent 4 1/2 years procrastination from that point on, and hated to even look at the broken pieces that I had piled in a corner of my father's garage.
Finally, piece by piece, I disassembled the desk, made repairs, and reassembled it back together again. I had the strong feeling that this was one thing that I needed to complete out of respect for my father who had bought the raw hardwood for me to make it. By that Christmas I had nearly finished the desk with the exception of the custom cut glass top. I clearly remember the moment, on a freezing cold and snowy North Dakota day in early January. My father and I had just returned from the hardware store with the custom cut glass top and fit it into place with a few family photos underneath. I sat back in the desk chair admiring the desk with my father, when the telephone rang; the caller was from Virginia and was offering me a job. Before I packed my car and left home to travel to Virginia, I wrote the story of my lesson to
"finish what I started," and taped it to the pullout writing board.
The years past and my father would pull the board to show my wife and our kids the story, as I know that he had done for other relatives and visitors. I am still working on finishing the tasks of my life, one at a time. Likewise, God who began a work in my life is completing that work, one day at a time. One important work this past year has been to read through the Bible. I was impressed at Ironbridge in December 2007 when collectively as a church body we read through the Bible in 86 hours, filling God's house with His Word. In our new worship center, from the few chapters that I signed up to read, I understood so much more clearly what I was reading. God encouraged me to read aloud and record on my computer all of the chapters of the Bible for my quiet time. Having completed 10 of 12 months, 973 of 1189 chapters, and 9.66 gigabytes of memory, I'm asking God to show me what He has next for me to learn. I'm certain that He will show me.
