The last day! I've been busy, had a productive time, and accomplished much. Our days have been used wisely. Tonight, just 14 hours from now, I fly out. Many of the items we planned to do have been successfully finished. But there's always more to do.
How do you decide what tasks to finish when you can't finish them all? And how do you appear calm, remain productive, and maintain relationship and fellowship when you feel frantic, completion appears hopeless, and you know you could do more if everyone just left you alone?
It's important to finish well. What good does it do to have a successful trip, accomplish lots of tasks, and build strong relationships, but leave everyone drained and upset by losing your cool on the last day? So, knowing that not everything will get done, you smile, be gracious, and do what you can do while maintaining integrity and relationship. After all, people are more important than tasks!
But, knowing this day was coming, and anticipating there would still be much to do, I have taken time along the way to train others to continue the work. I've chosen those who are committed and qualified, shown them the priorities, shared my knowledge and experience, imparted my vision, left money and resources, and now I must trust them to carry on, to complete the tasks, and accomplish our goals.
I'm sure that as I get older, my ToDo list will not diminish. The more I do, the more I want to do. And there's coming a day that will be My Last Day. I will not have finished everything I would like to do. If I've walked faithfully with the Lord, I've accomplished what He called me to do. But I haven't done everything that needs to be done.
I think God always lets us see more that needs to be done than we can possibly accomplish. Because I think God wants us to realize that we can't do it. Our priority, then, is not doing the tasks. It's certainly important that we do all that we can, and use our time and resources wisely. But the priority is investing into the lives of others who will then invest into the lives of others, so that we can all do our portion of the tasks while making our investment in people the real goal.
So what did I do that last day? Spent time with people. We did what we could do together, and I left a list of unfinished tasks with them. That let them know I trusted them to accomplish our joint goals, and demonstrated that the main thing was my relationship with them. And it was a good day.