It's All in the Followthrough

If you have ever played any sports, you have heard about followthrough.  You have heard it said, "It's all in the followthrough."  I remember in my short attempt to play sports during my childhood many times where a coach or teacher would tell me I needed to follow through.  They would tell me I was cutting myself short because I wasn't following through after releasing the ball, etc.  I knew they were right.  It takes concentration and effort to follow through, but it is worth it.

Over the past couple of years, I have been digging into this idea of followthrough.  Mostly I need to because, embarrassingly, I am not always good at it.  I don't like this about myself, and I wish to change it.  I want to be a person who follows through and can be trusted to do so.

Followthrough.

Bringing to completion.

Finishing what I start.

Followthrough is the noun that comes from the verb phrase, "to follow through."

As I have been working on many ideas, including several books to write, I have noticed that it seems the difference between a good idea and a good idea that comes to fruition is the followthrough.  Perhaps here again it is all in the followthrough.  When I would hear of a new product or idea that came out, I used to ask myself, "No one had ever thought of that before now? Why didn't anyone ever think of that earlier than now?  Why didn't I think of that?!"

Now I see that it's not always that no one thought of it before, but rather no one did anything about the idea before.  Have you ever known someone who after seeing a new product on the market lamented, "That was my idea!  I wanted to do that!"  Often they just never did anything about it, and someone else did.

Sometimes there are hindrances such as fear, laziness, regret, lack of intentionality...  Also, when I fail to followthrough I am almost always acting in selfishness.  It may not be noticeable even to myself, but selfishness lurks in the shadows of not following through with what the Lord has called me to do with excellence for His glory.  Usually, I am thinking of myself and not others when I reside in those shadows. 

I need Jesus here because I cannot grow and mature in the area of followthrough without His help.

I am confronted with this issue daily.  In my daily life, in my business, in my teaching myself to play violin, in my writing, in my desire to take care of myself, there is always a fight to followthrough.  It takes work to followthrough and to be a person who means what he says and does what he says he will do. 

I want to be this type of person.

I am thankful that the Lord finishes what He starts.

"For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." (Philippians 1:6)

May I follow His example and followthrough where I am called to finish what I have started.  I pray this for you, as well.