ends and beginnings... patience and pride...

Working on a project today... I thought the end would never come...

At this writing... it's still not complete... but the design part is done...

The part causing frustration... finished...

As I worked... a Scripture came to mind... The end of a matter is better than its beginning...

And I consider why that's true...

I believe it's primarily because of the unknowns...

Not knowing how much longer it will take... or whether it will be completed at all...

We'd rather live with a bad ending than an unknown...

There is something about not knowing that can eat at us... cause anxiety... fear...

I realize... this perspective... lacks hope...

But hope that is seen is no hope at all.

Who hopes for what he already has?

But if we hope for what we do not yet have,

we wait for it patiently.

Romans 8:24-25

So here patience comes in... and unknowns certainly try our patience...

I look up the verse that came to mind earlier... and see I have not remembered the rest...

The end of a matter is better than its beginning,

and patience is better than pride.

Ecclesiastes 7:8

Patience is better than pride...

Yes... the end of a matter is better...

but on the way to the end...

we have an opportunity to exercise patience...

Perhaps the lack of patience... exposes depths of pride...

The needing to know... puts self in His place... 

expecting omniscience... and omnipotence... to be ours...

unwilling to wait... for what's to come...

not trusting Him... with the outcome...

Lord... help me to focus on what I hope for...

and not the unknowns...

Bless me with patience... remove... pride...