Unfinished Business…

All of us always have unfinished business. Most of us have unfulfilled obligations. Most of us have things piled far before us that always weigh on us and worry us⎯things we never quite get to, things we never quite catch up with⎯things we have agreed to do but haven’t done.

We worry about assignments we have accepted, and about preparation postponed⎯until we find ourselves facing final deadlines, having to do in a short time what we should have done a little of each day. Some men may have worn themselves away with over-work. But many men have worn themselves away with worry about work they weren’t really working at.

There is something in us that somehow seems to suggest that what we neglect today will somehow be easier tomorrow. It is true of students at school: If today’s assignment seems too heavy, too difficult to do, it may be postponed for something easier⎯perhaps for some pleasant pastime⎯on the unrealistic assumption that we can somehow assimilate a double dose tomorrow.

(What is it that makes men suppose that they can more easily do twice tomorrow what they didn’t do once today!)

Anything we have to do⎯even the simplest assignment⎯will weigh on us and worry us until we begin to get at it: the problems there are to work, the pages there are to read, the debts there are to pay⎯(even the dishes there are to do)⎯the things there are to repent of: all will worry and wear at us until we have made a start⎯until we have made the assignment one less instead of one longer⎯until we have actually done something to begin to get done what there is to do⎯in short: until we have moved one shovelful, even if there is a mountain that must be moved.

The only way t get a job done is to begin to do it. The only way to do our duty is to begin to do it. We can’t be comfortable if we’re drifting in the wrong direction. To have peace and self-respect, and to lift the weight of worry, we have to repent, we have to reverse the process.

Indeed, without the principle of repentance, life would be fruitless and frustrating for us all⎯but blessedly there is no man whose life cannot be improved by repenting. And the best evidence of repentance is to stop doing what we shouldn’t do, and to start doing what we should do.