I Will Fix That Bit Later

There is one thing left.

And you have no intention of doing it. That is the part worth putting down first, plainly, because everybody in this situation knows it and nobody says it.

Nine months. If it were going to be done it would have been done in the first fortnight, and the first fortnight was in January.

So the question is not when you are going to fix it. The question is what that one item is doing there, because it is clearly doing something, and it is not waiting to be fixed.

Here is what it is doing. It is keeping the job open. While one thing is outstanding, the job is in progress, and a job in progress is not a thing anybody can form an opinion about, including you.

That is the whole function of it. It is a permanent exemption, bought with an item that nobody is ever going to do anything about, and it costs a closed job.

You are a man who finished a job months ago, and one outstanding correction has never once been the same as work remaining.

Withhold not good

There is a proverb about withholding, and the condition attached to it is what makes it land here.

Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it. (Proverbs 3:27, King James Version)

When it is in the power of thine hand to do it.

That is the condition, and it is doing careful work. The instruction is limited to what a person can actually do. Nobody is being told to produce what they do not have.

And inside that limit, the instruction is firm. If the good is in your hand, do not hold it back.

You have a condition attached to that instruction that protects you from everything outside your hand, and an obligation has never once extended past what somebody actually holds. Proverbs 3:27 limits itself to the power of the hand, and the Holy Spirit is the one who keeps that limit real rather than decorative.

And here is the turn, and it is the reason this is the verse. The good being withheld in that garage is not being withheld from anybody else.

A closed job is a good thing, and the person it is due to is the man who did the work, and he is the one holding it back from himself with a single outstanding item.

You have been withholding something from yourself that was due, and a good thing has never once been excluded from that verse because the person it is owed to is you. The Spirit of God is the one who notices where the withholding is actually pointed, and the written word says withhold not good from them to whom it is due without specifying that they have to be somebody else.

An exemption is not a plan

So here is the practical claim, and it needs saying without any softening.

That item is not a plan. Calling it later has kept it looking like one for nine months, and later has quietly become never, and nobody has said so.

You have an honest sentence about that item, and calling a thing later has never once been the same as meaning to do it. An honest sentence would be: that is not getting done. It is available and it is true and nobody has ever said it out loud in that garage. Proverbs 3:27 speaks about what is actually in the power of the hand, and the Spirit of God is the one who makes plain speech possible about a small thing.

You have a true sentence about that item that has never once been spoken, and calling a thing later has never once been the same as intending it. Proverbs 3:27 speaks about what is actually in the power of the hand, and the Holy Spirit is the one who lets a man be honest about what is not.

And here is what the exemption costs, which is more than it looks.

While the job is open, nothing in it can be enjoyed and nothing in it can be counted. It does not appear on any list of things done. Nine months of a finished job have produced none of what finishing gives, because it was never called finished.

You have nine months of a job that is finished and has never once been counted, and an open job has never once been able to give anybody anything back. The Spirit of God is the one who makes the closing possible, and the written word puts a good thing and a person it is due to in one sentence.

And one more, and it is what makes tonight survivable. Closing it does not mean the item is acceptable.

You were never asked to approve of that item, and closing a job has never once required anybody to be satisfied with every part of it. Proverbs 3:27 speaks about not withholding rather than about being pleased, and the Holy Spirit is the one present while a man closes a thing he still does not like.

Say it is not getting done, and close it

Here is the assignment and it is two sentences and it will take about eleven seconds.

Say out loud that the outstanding item is not going to be done.

Out loud, in the garage, on your own. That bit is not getting fixed. Plainly, without regret in the voice, as a statement of fact rather than as a confession.

You have an honest sentence available tonight that has been waiting nine months, and saying a thing is not happening has never once been the same as failing to do it. Proverbs 3:27 limits itself to what is in the power of the hand, and the Holy Spirit is the one in that garage while a man says a true thing about his own intentions.

Then say the second one. The job is closed.

That is all. Eleven seconds and a job that has been in progress since January is not in progress any more.

And here is what to expect. Nothing will happen. There will be no ceremony, and very little in the way of anything else either. The whole event takes place in the fact that the job is now finished and is on the list of things that got done, which is a list it has never been on.

Then put the tools away and come inside.