Finished work
What is 'completed' in a world where everything seems to come with the possibility of being changed, adapted, altered, and updated? In an age where we are hurdling a seemingly infinite succession of targets, where decisions escalate out of our hands, the finality of a satisfying 'done' seems increasingly rare.
In response, many of us struggle with perfectionist impulses, attempting to retain some form of control when so much feels as if it slips through our fingers. We can't let go, for while something is in our hands, while we can still fiddle with details, improve a presentation, write another draft, hunt down a speck of dust, the work remains ours. Without the luxury of having a director's cut where we can correct what wasn't right the first time round, we feel the pressure to make our work faultless. Baseball Umpire Ed Vargo echoed the feeling of many of us when he commented, 'we're supposed to be perfect our first day on the job and then show constant improvement.'
Alternatively, we procrastinate, putting off starting something that we cannot finish, fearing that what we produce cannot be as perfect as that we have imagined. We strive for a time when it will all be finished, done, complete... but even if we get there will it be satisfying?
'It is finished' we hear the words from the cross and wonder when the work we are doing will be complete. Yet as we pause and hear these words afresh we must recognise that here is a cry of trust and not of control. Jesus offers his work to the Father trusting that in His hands it is complete. Can we hear that cry echoed in our crowded lives and busy workplaces? To call our work finished has to be also an act of trust - in ourselves, in others and in God. In that trust, let us make the space to celebrate a finished piece of work and discover the strength to leave it behind.
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