I Can Only See What Is Left

It took about four seconds.

The last screw went in, you stood back, and before anything else had a chance to happen your eye went to the doorframe. And then the baseboard on the other side. And then the thing above the window that has been like that since you moved in.

Four more, inside four seconds, and the job that had just been finished was already behind you.

And this is not pessimism and it is not ingratitude, and it would be a mistake to call it either of those.

It is a working eye. A man who has been doing this kind of work has trained himself to scan a room and find what needs doing, and that scanning is not something he switches on, it is how he sees now. It served him well for years and it does not have an off switch.

So the finishing gets about four seconds, and the scanning gets the rest of the evening, and the man goes to bed with four new items and no experience at all of having completed anything.

You are a man standing in something finished, and four more jobs arriving has never once been the same as this one not counting.

Think on these things

There is a sentence at the end of Philippians that is a list, and the instruction attached to the list is the thing that matters here.

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. (Philippians 4:8, King James Version)

Think on these things.

It is an instruction about thinking, which is unusual, because most people treat what they think about as something that happens to them rather than something they direct.

And the verse assumes otherwise. It hands a person a list and tells them to put their thinking on it, which only makes sense if the thinking can be aimed.

You have thinking that can be aimed rather than only endured, and the direction of attention has never once been a thing entirely outside anybody control. Philippians 4:8 issues it as an instruction, and the Holy Spirit is the one who makes an aimed mind possible for a man whose eye scans by habit.

And look at what is on the list. True, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report. Every one of those is a thing that is already the case rather than a thing that needs doing.

That is the whole difference between the list in that verse and the list in your head at nine o clock. One is made of what is; the other is made of what is not yet.

You have been thinking on a list of what is not yet, and a mind aimed at what is missing has never once been able to see what is finished. The Spirit of God is the one who redirects the aim, and the written word names six things that are the case rather than six things to be done.

The scan is a skill and it has no off switch

So here is the practical claim, and it is not a criticism of the eye.

That scanning ability is genuinely valuable. It is why things get spotted early in this house. It is why the gutter got dealt with before it became something worse. A man who could not do it would have a worse house.

The trouble is that it runs continuously and it has no idea when a job has been finished, because finding what needs doing is all it does.

You have a good instrument that does not know when to stop, and an eye that finds work has never once been able to tell you when to stop looking. Philippians 4:8 aims the thinking deliberately, and the Holy Spirit is the one who provides an aim where a habit has been running.

And here is what it has cost, which is the reason this row exists.

Nothing in this house has ever been received. Every finished job has been overwritten within seconds by the next four, and a thing that is overwritten within seconds is, in a man experience, indistinguishable from a thing that never happened.

You have finished a great deal and experienced almost none of it.

You have years of completed work that were never once lived in, and a job that gets overwritten in four seconds has never once been a job that was enjoyed. The Spirit of God is the one who holds a man in a finished room, and Philippians 4:8 puts the thinking under instruction rather than leaving it to the habit.

And one more, and it is what makes an hour possible. The four are not going anywhere.

You have four items that will still be there in the morning, and a job written down or remembered has never once needed to be scanned twice in one evening. Philippians 4:8 names what is rather than what is missing, and the Holy Spirit is the one who makes an hour of that survivable.

One hour on the part that is done

Here is the assignment and the length is deliberately longer than usual.

Spend one hour in the finished room thinking only about the part that is done.

An hour, not ten minutes. Ten minutes can be got through by holding your breath. An hour is long enough that the habit has to actually be redirected rather than suppressed.

You have one hour available in a room that is finished, and an hour spent on what is done has never once been an hour taken from what is not. Philippians 4:8 says think on these things, and the Holy Spirit is the one in that room for the whole hour.

You have an hour that does not have to be a vigil, and an ordinary hour spent inside a finished room has never once needed to be solemn to count. So sit in it, or read in it, or eat in it, or be on the phone in it. Philippians 4:8 puts the thinking under instruction rather than under a mood, and the Spirit of God is the one in that room the whole time.

And when the eye goes to the doorframe, and it will go about fifteen times, do not fight it and do not follow it. Bring the attention back to something that is finished and name that thing to yourself.

The second coat came out even. The join at the corner is good. The handle is on and it is straight.

Those are things that are the case, which is precisely what that verse asks a mind to be put on, and there is no shortage of them in that room.

Then go to bed. The four are still there in the morning and nobody has lost anything.