The Finish Line

Oh happy day! The proof of my new book arrived in the mail today! Now the final edit begins in earnest. I have to look for every misplaced comma, or absent period, or grammatical error, and correct every one. Then....publishing time! So exciting!

I opened the box, and clutched the new book to my heart. Eight years ago this project began, and now, I have almost reached the finish line! So many fits and starts, mistakes along the way, successes and epiphanies, revisions, tears, exhaltation, struggles, despair over what to edit, what to keep, certainty I will never finish, faint assurances I am on the right path...This book is in many ways a microcosm of life.

I had just returned from lunch with a wonderful friend. We talked of many things. One of our discussions was about letting go of the failures of the past. Guilt and self recrimination are tools of Satan. They only discourage, and never bring us closer to our goal. They defeat us. Satan knows this, and loves to remind us of how terribly we have messed up, and how we have no chance of finishing well.

Fight this!

God sent Jesus to conquer sin and guilt once and for all. If God Himself has forgiven us, how arrogant of us to think we should not forgive ourselves! What a slap in the face to our Savior and Lord. Either His sacrifice was sufficient, or it was not. I think we should fight hard to believe it was. We are forgiven. Let us not revisit the struggles and sins of the past, but keep our eyes on the finish line, on the "author and perfecter of our faith."

I held the new proof in my hand. I slowly turned each page, not yet to read, but to experience the pleasure of a job nearly done.

************
Brothers and sisters, I know that I still have a long way to go. But there is one thing I do: I forget what is in the past and try as hard as I can to reach the goal before me. I keep running hard toward the finish line to get the prize that is mine because God has called me through Christ Jesus to life up there in heaven. (Philippians 3:13, 14 ERV)

-save a dog- hollowcreekfarm.org
http://www.amazon.com/Vicky-Kaseorg/e/B006XJ2DWU