My life has taken some significant twists and turns in the past 2 years, resulting in, among other things, difficulty for me to write. Not to physically write, but spiritually and emotionally it is a real battle for a variety of reasons.

There have been moments of inspiration where I start a draft post, but after a sentence or two, maybe even a couple of paragraphs, my capacity to finalise and then post my thoughts dissolves completely … like strands of fairy floss after they hit your tongue. Try as I might I can’t recapture the momentum and so these posts sit, accumulating, in my ‘drafts’ folder.

So why now? (Assuming this one gets finished and posted!)

I have tried to revisit them, may times, but picking up from where I left off seems harder than beginning all over again. So there they stay as a permanent reminder of my inability to finish things that once I could do easily. Well, that is a stretch. It wasn’t often ‘easy’ but I had the perseverance and/or resilience to complete them and post on a weekly basis.

I was scrolling social media yesterday and I saw a post from an author I love reading by the name of Max Lucado. I rarely see posts from him but there he was, sitting in a tattooist’s chair ready to have a word permanently inked on his right arm at the age of 70.

I was intrigued to read the word ‘tetelestai’ which is not a word I had heard in any context before. Max explained that this was the Greek word for the phrase “It is finished” that Jesus offered as his last while dying on the cross (John chapter 19 and verse 30). He also shared that it means, ‘paid in full’. This man wanted a continual reminder of the sacrifice that was given to claim his freedom by having this word visibly written on his skin as it had been on his heart for 50 years.

About 4 hours later I was again on social media and I came across another post, this time a video with the title ‘Tetelestai’. Recognising the metadata algorithm at work, but fully curious, I chose to watch it. It was from a pastor I neither follow nor know of called Josh Howerton. He again explained that this was the Greek word Jesus uttered on the cross but he then went a little further.

He shared that this word, when used in a business context, would indicate that a debt had been paid in full. It was also a word used in a judicial context meaning that a criminal’s sentence had been fully served. Not only that, but this word was used in a military context to mean that a battle had been won and there was victory to celebrate.

Could there be a more perfect word for Jesus to utter as he breathed his last? His death on the cross means that our debt of sin has been fully paid for, the punishment we deserve has been fully served and the battle over sin and death has been won by this one sacrificial act.

Since then I have been contemplating ‘Tetelestai’ and its significance for me and my life. I felt the stirrings of creative expression that have been dormant for some time and decided that I needed to take the opportunity to write about this word with the goal to finish and share.

Writing helps me process my thoughts, emotions and experiences and by either not being willing to engage in this process, or finish the expression of thoughts I start it has helped me remain in a state of feeling incomplete or stuck.

While the word Tetelestai has an especially beautiful meaning for people of Christian faith, especially in this Easter season, it is a word that has challenged me to complete the process, no matter how inconvenient or how distracted I am, or how scary and painful it may be. It needs to finish so that this good work can be complete in me.

And so, on this day, with these thoughts … Tetelestai.

Be blessed.