Consider this list: a local restaurant under construction, a high school dropout, the cross-stitch I've been working on for six years, a young person killed in an accident. All of these have one thing in common: they describe something that has gone unfinished. A building, an education, a craft, a life. There are thousands of things and thousands of people around us that go unfinished. Some people start something and stop because they can't take criticism. Others stop because they're content with what they've done to that point. Still others have their life taken tragically from them, unfinished.

What can we say about the unfinished business of life? I myself have been drawn to that expression that says, "Some look at the glass and say, 'It's half empty.' Others look at the glass and say,…