So it’s Monday and everyone is wading back into the fray of life.  But one more venture into some New Year’s talk if we might before the ordinary swallows us whole.

A new year is about a starting new things, but what about finishing what’s been started before you just settle for ‘almost’.

One of my new year’s resolution is to lose the final ten pounds I’ve been carrying. Last year I joined a gym and I lost 15 pounds, but I’ve clung to the final ten like they are good friends. From everything I hear, the final ten is the hardest.

I’ve been thinking that might be true in life as well.  When we’re trying to make progress in an area and God is chipping away at us, making changes, it’s tempting to settle for some change without going for profound change.  Maybe God is working on your anger.  Or you are trying to make progress in being more compassionate.  Or you are almost out of debt. Or you have almost nailed a bad habit. See, I’ve lost enough weight to feel good about what’s happened, but not enough to really finish what I started. It’s that last 10 that takes so much more effort.

Some thoughts:

• You can lose the first ten with some change, but you can only lose the final ten with deep change.
• You might have made peace with the final ten because they’ve been part of you for so long.
• Your whole image of yourself might have to change because you are going from “a lot” to “some” to “none”.  None is a long way from “a lot”.

The difference between losing the final ten and keeping it is surrender.  Maybe it means giving up making peace with the enemy and actually deciding he has to go.  As it is with the body, so it is with our character and spiritual life.  I’m sure God would love to get at the final ten of so much inside of us.  I wonder how different we would be.

What do you find when you’re trying to lose the final ten in any area?  In which area do you need to lose the final ten?  What’s hardest about it?  What scares you most?  What has helped you most?