Hebrews 12:1 – Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, 2 keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that lay before Him endured a cross and despised the shame and has sat down at the right hand of God’s throne. (HCSB)

I don’t like to start something and not finish it. I recently talked to someone who just completed a craft project that she started four years ago. Four years!??!!  On the same project!??!!  I would have been so agitated and probably given myself an ulcer just knowing I had that unfinished project waiting for me. I would have given up sleep, TV, food, — okay, maybe not food — but I would have been totally driven to see the completion of that particular project. I love needlework and pretty much always have something in the making — sometimes for a specific reason, sometimes just to be busy.  Sometimes I’ll have a “just to be busy” in the works when I need to begin a “for a specific reason” and have the most difficult time starting one while knowing I have left something incomplete.  I like to complete projects that I start in such a way that they honor the pattern, but as I’m running the race that I started with You, Lord, am I running in such a way that I will complete the race with honor to You?  As I am pondering all of this over a cup of coffee, I think of 2 Timothy 4:7 “I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (HCSB).  When I finish the race, will I finish having kept the faith or will it just be cessation?  I don’t know specifics about what caused this person to lay aside her project four years ago, but I know that it just got easier and easier to not even think about getting on with it and, after so much time had passed, really not knowing how to start. I begin to think of Hebrews 12:1 that tells me to lay aside the things that are holding me back and get on with the race that is before me, and verse 2 tells me how I need to do it — keeping my eyes on Jesus.  I know that working on a craft project and running the race for You, Lord, are not the same thing, but I also know they are both things that I want to do well.  I like the praise and accolades that I get from a well done craft project, but how much better to hear those precious “well done” words from You.