In the Evangelical Covenant Church we read a prayer of confession before we participate in the Lord’s Supper. It says that “we have sinned against You in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone”. Somehow that last phrase always stops me cold and brings me to repentance. I know without doubt there are sinful things I have done, but when I consider what I have left undone, what potential good I could have contributed to this world that I have neglected…it never fails to convict my heart and pierce my soul.
I thought about this phrase today as I looked around my mom’s condo…she passed away unexpectedly a little over two weeks ago, only 62 years old, and my foundations have been completely rocked. It’s times like this when you find out who your friends and family are (and boy, I got ‘em), and you also find out how deep your faith is (boy, I wonder). She certainly left things undone – mundane, ordinary things. She left piles of papers to file and catalogs to look at. I discovered that she had ordered a cover for the bench on her front porch, a cover that she never took out of the box, let alone put to use. She purchased clothing that she didn’t take out of the bag, let alone remove the tags and wear. She bought a whole new set of silverware to replace the tired old set that she had kept many years, and she bought nifty silver trays to organize them in, and there they sit, clean, unused, in their original packaging. Somehow, these things that clutter her small abode symbolize all of the things that will never be, all of the grief and loss of a life cut short, and they shatter my heart into tiny pieces.
I know she has always been this way; somehow, for her, it was part of the pleasure of ownership to bring home something new and keep it new for a while and look forward to the day when she would finally put it to its intended use. And I know that all of us believe that we have all of the time in the world to use the things we have, and do the things we must, and accomplish the good that we hope for in the world. And I am positive that if she had known how short her time was, she would not have wasted precious minutes on silverware or bench covers.
But we do not have all the time in the world; James 4:14 says, “You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes”. Verse 17 says, “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins”.
It is easy to wait for “someday” – to do the good we ought to do, and to do the mundane that is not as pressing. Lord, help me to discern the good that You call me to do, and help me to not leave it undone.
