September has always been my favorite month. It’s my birthday month, fall is around the corner, and something about September has always felt like a reset.

Recently, I started seeing posts about September being a month of completion. Apparently, in numerology, the number nine is associated with completion, endings, and preparing for a new cycle. Now, I’m not looking to numerology to tell me what God is doing in my life, but the idea of completion caught my attention.

Especially because it reminded me of something I wrote on September 28, 2023.

At the time, I had come across 2 Corinthians 8:10–11:

“Here is my advice: It would be good for you to finish what you started a year ago. Last year you were the first who wanted to give, and you were the first to begin doing it. Now you should finish what you started…” — 2 Corinthians 8:10–11 NLT

I remember thinking, Where has this verse been?

I needed it.

I wrote in 2023: “I’m a great starter but not a great finisher.”

That used to be me.

I get excited about an idea. Then the ideas multiply. I start thinking about all the possibilities, all the different angles, all the ways I could execute it and eventually the excitement becomes overwhelm.

At the time, one of those unfinished things was my book.

I had started writing it a year earlier, and then my phone died. Everything I had written was gone. I was devastated, but if I’m being truthful, I was mostly mad at myself. I hadn’t properly saved what I was creating.

Still, I wrote something else that day:

“I want to finish what I start.”

Three years later, I’m reading those words differently.

Because I did go back.

I started again. I kept writing. I changed things. I added things. I wrestled with the direction more times than I can count.

But eventually, I had a completed first draft in my hands.

And maybe that’s what I’ve been learning about finishing: finishing requires you to stop being captivated by what something could be long enough to complete what it is.

At some point, you have to stop adding.

At some point, you have to finish.

Now, 2 Corinthians 8 isn’t about writing books. Paul was talking to the Corinthians about completing a financial gift they had previously committed to giving. But I love the principle in his instruction.

They had the desire.

They had started.

Now their completion needed to match their willingness.

Starting isn’t usually my problem. Maybe it isn’t yours either.

Maybe there’s something you were excited about in January that you’ve barely touched since March. Maybe there’s something God put on your heart that became complicated once you realized how much work it would require. Maybe you’ve convinced yourself that because you stopped, you failed.

Its ok.

Go back.

September doesn’t have to mean the year is almost over and you’re running out of time. There are still months left in this year.

That’s enough time to return to something.

Enough time to finish.

Zechariah 4:9 says, “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this temple; his hands will also complete it.”

I love that.

The same hands that started it can finish it.

So I’m asking myself a different question as I move through my favorite month:

What have I already laid the foundation for that it’s time to finish?

I’m not looking for something new to start.

I’ve got enough ideas.

This season, I want my completion to match my willingness.

Finish the work.

Until next time,

Dominique