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CONNIE'S UNFINISHED SYMPHONY

We had a brutal surprise hit our Adventist Media Center campus just before Christmas three years ago. A good friend named Connie LaJoie, a fellow employee, passed away after what seemed such a brief battle with cancer. She had just turned 60, with so much yet to give, so many gifts and talents to share. She worked in advertising and time-buying, and was a marvelous contact between our sometimes stuffy church people - and once in a while I guess I'm that way too - and the secular people who run the television stations and who sell the time. That was her

greatest ability, along with her infectious laugh, her wisdom on committees. And now, all at once, she was gone. Far too soon, she was gone.
And as people sat in the church for the memorial service, praying and remembering her cheerful telephone greeting - "Connie here" - a thought came to someone's mind there. And he told me about it. This wonderful verse from Philippians chapter one:

"Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it to completion until the day of Jesus Christ."

Somehow that verse, that promise, came to mind. Now admittedly, funerals are not usually where this Bible passage comes to mind. Because Philippians 1:6 seems to be defining an uncompleted project, an as-yet-unfulfilled dream, an unfinished symphony. And of course, according to the conventional wisdom of the world, when you go to a funeral home, man, you're there for something that is irrevocably DONE. The funeral marks the END of life, the finishing of this one person's brave journey.
But David sat there listening to the prayers, and instead thought of this: Here is an unfinished story. A Christian woman is cut down too soon. She still had work to do. She still had love to give, and now her husband, Dick LaJoie, has to bravely continue without that love. She still had friendships to enjoy and grandparenting to do, and now she can't.
But friend, because of her faith in Jesus Christ, because of the certainty of the resurrection, the life of Connie LaJoie is an unfinished project. True, it is interrupted. For all of 2001 and on until that great day, we're deprived of her laugh and her wit and her bright ideas. But He - God - who began a good work in her is going to finish. The unfinished symphony is going to be completed. The years stolen by the curse of cancer are going to be restored a hundredfold, a million-fold. Connie will live again and FINISH, and FULFILL, and come to full fruition, doing and experiencing everything God dreamed in the eternity He has always planned to give to her.

Well, as we launch into four weeks of Bible study in this remarkable book, I hope that those of us who remain, as Paul puts it, can take this verse equally to OUR hearts. Because admittedly the apostle was writing to LIVING people. Men and women in the frail, fragile Christian Church of Philippi. They were virgin believers. They were just getting out of the starting blocks in terms of faith and a daily walk with Jesus Christ. Spiritually speaking, you could see the warts on these people from a long ways off even though binoculars and telephoto lenses hadn't been invented yet. But that doesn't deter Paul from giving this ringing endorsement: "I know," he proclaims, "that the same God who started this good work in you isn't going to give up! He's not going to walk off the job! What God starts, He finishes! Always!"
And if that sounds like a blanket statement, I really intended it to be. In terms of a man's character, a woman's character, God is going to finish the job. The process of sanctification, of making a person holy, is something He will achieve in our lives. I know you're thinking of that famous bumper sticker: "Please be patient; God is not finished with me yet." And yes, sometimes we do paste those on our souls and use them as an excuse for careless, disloyal living. But for the Christian who's not only willing to wear the bumper sticker, but also submit himself to the paint job and the oil lube and the engine tuneup God wants to perform is going to find that Philippians 1:6 is a money-back, Mr. Goodwrench guarantee.
Let's think for a moment about this big, vast, sometimes bloated organization called the Christian Church. Or perhaps YOUR local congregation with all of its fractured Pharisaism and its factions and its fights. Maybe it's a mess. But that church was STARTED by Jesus. He founded it; He got it going 2000 years ago. And here's a Bible verse which promises us that the process He began He's going to carry through to completion. I can't tell you how many times I've sat in meetings where someone lamented about the condition of the Church. But invariably someone else would stand up, give a great big confident Christian smile and then remind us that the church is the "Bride of Christ." "Jesus loves this church," they say. "And He's going to make it perfect. He's going to finish the job."
You know, I especially treasure this concept of completion within the Church for another reason. Because it's within the Church that we so often find the elements that bring us individually to our own completion. We complete each other within that fellowship. Here at this radio ministry, you, our listeners, help complete or fulfill what we're all about. What's the point of broadcasting if no one listens? What's the purpose of having Bible lessons if you don't send in and study them together with us? When we have financial needs, we turn to donors and they help carry us through the dry times. When we're struggling over a big decision, we know that many friends of the ministry are praying for us - and all of you know that each Thursday morning we are here praying for you BY NAME. We complete each other. And I know it's the same in our churches too, yours and mine.
That's why it's just a terrific blessing for me to read backwards in this chapter and go back to verse three. Here's what Paul writes:

"I thank my God every time I remember you."

Isn't that a great Hallmark line? Paul remembers his friends in Philippi - their prayers, their songs, their hugs, their spiritual insights, their new, excited faith, their commitment - and he just can't help but break out into celebration every time that memory flickers in his brain. Those people in Philippi, his brothers and sisters, help complete him as a spiritual man because every time he remembers them, it drives him to his knees in thanksgiving to God.
There are some marvelous extra insights to be found in some of the paraphrase versions of the New Testament. Notice here in The Message, by Dr. Eugene Peterson:

"Every time you cross my mind," he writes, "I break out in exclamations of thanks to God." Then he adds this very 2001-sounding metaphor: "Each exclamation is a trigger to prayer."

Isn't that a fantastic premise? Wouldn't you like to be a part of that kind of network? A phone call, a greeting at church, a fresh loaf of bread, even just a memory of a shared conversation . . . all of these being spiritual stimuli causing you to thank God - and also fall to your knees in prayer.
But now let me take you back to verse six. Maybe here on this Monday, friend, you have cause to be discouraged. Perhaps you don't have a job. Maybe someone just broke up with you. What if you just had a temper lapse, really blew up at someone you care about? What does the Bible promise us? It promises that this story isn't over! This picture isn't complete! If you're unemployed right now, that's not the end of the story God is writing in your life. So you made a mistake, committed a sin. God's not done painting the portrait of your character yet! Things aren't over! Maybe your marriage isn't what you would like it to be. Well, take heart! God's still knitting the quilt of unity He wants for the two of you to experience. Keep with the program. Keep trusting Him. Keep claiming Philippians one, verse six.
There in that Thousand Oaks church, on that cold Saturday night in December, that was the thought that kept everyone going. "This funeral isn't the end; this life story, so brutally interrupted, is going to be resumed in a marvelous way." In fact, let me return to The Message Bible as we close. And why don't you think of YOUR toughest funeral, your most painfully incomplete project as we read together. Here it is:

"There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind," Paul writes, "that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a FLOURISHING FINISH on the very day Christ Jesus appears."

And I'll tell you something. There's no one who can finish something with a flourish like our incredible God.