Most of us feel as if there’s never enough time to do all the things we have to do. For the Leung household, it is no exception. My wife wakes up at 5am on weekdays to work a fulltime job out of town. We have two children under the age of 6, a little girl who stays home with me, and I am still struggling in the aftermath of a stroke. We struggle to keep up with the housework, the laundry, the healthy meals, maintenance, and now we’ve just found out that my dad was diagnosed with gallstones and if the pain gets worse, will have to undergo gallbladder surgery. With my mom already battling crippling arthritis, I feel compelled to help out in any way I can. On top of this, we have our YouTube channel to maintain, weekly messages that I get to preach for various churches, and a big Florida trip to prepare for. How can we possibly manage? Perhaps you can relate. No doubt, you also feel the stress of life today.
Thus, it is with great admiration and amazement that one considers one of the final three words of our Lord on the cross, “It is finished.” Undoubtedly, He was referring firstly to His intense suffering. He was giving up His final breath. His earthly life and excruciating death was over. But it is also commonly understood that His ministry on earth was completed.
How could it be? Surely there were countless eyes that were still blind, many lame who still could not walk, numerous sick who still needed to be healed, and multitudes who still had not heard the Gospel. How could He say it was finished? Yet, the life of Jesus was never marked by stress over deadlines, anxiety over the future, or a list of things left to do. Bold and victorious, He declared on the cross, “It is finished.” Jesus had accomplished all that His father had for Him to do, not more, not less. What Jesus had, that we often don’t have, was focused and unhurried time with God. He often got up while it was still dark to have alone time with His Father, to hear from Him and to start the day with the confidence of intimacy with God Himself.
From this mindset, He was able to clearly see His priorities and to make the hard decisions that day. He was able to prioritize and to say no to things that in turn, allowed Him the freedom to say yes to the things that really mattered. Thus, our Lord was able to come to the end of His short earthly life with those powerful words, “It is finished.”
May we all have that sublime mix of freedom and focus, calling and commitment, and sweet completion as we journey through this life. May the peace of Jesus be yours today.
P.S., Please be in prayer as our burden is heavier with my father’s pain, and don’t hesitate to view my feeble attempts at writing Chinese on our latest Youtube video, in honor of Chinese New Year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeafCxW1jZ0