Finish Line
By Grant Gaines
In the 1968 Summer Olympics, Tanzanian marathon runner John Stephen Akhwari was the talk of the town. No, John didn’t win the 26.2 mile race. In fact, after dislocating his knee in a nasty fall about half way through the race, John finish in last place – over an hour after the first place competitor.
When John finally came limping across the finish line to the muffled cheers of an almost empty stadium, a local news team came up to John and asked him why he continued to run after he knew he was injured and had no chance of winning the race. John steadied the painful emotions which welled up inside of him because of his injured knee and the shattered dream of winning a gold medal for his country as he looked directly into the camera and said, “My country did not send me 5,000 miles to start the race; they sent me 5,000 miles to finish the race.”
Much like this Tanzanian Olympian, our Father has not sent us to this earth to start our Christian “race”, but to finish. Nowhere in the Bible are we commanded to simply start something, but rather to work at, and complete, “Whatever [we] do with all of [our] heart[s], working for the Lord rather than men” (Colossians 3:23, NIV).
Paul was quite fond of this idea and would often charge his audience to finish strong. One of these instances can be found in his first letter to the church at Corinth when Paul writes, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize” (1 Corinthians 9:24, NIV).
Paul is saying two things here: first, Paul points out that every person on earth is in the “race of life” and secondly, Paul commands us as Christians to run in a way that separates us from the pack. So how do you separate yourself from the pack? You “run” harder after the Lord today than you did yesterday so that when you lay your head down on your pillow at night you are completely spent. Then you wake up the next morning to find that God has given you another daily dosage of spiritual “manna” and you run harder than the previous day.
Anyone can run hard at the beginning of a race. Just think about the first several weeks of every year – fitness clubs are full, refrigerators are full of veggies, and people are “dedicated” to their New Year’s resolution of getting in better shape…until it becomes an inconvenience. This is no different than the race of life – everyone, Christians and non-Christians alike, are kind to others, walk around with a smile, and help out those in need…until times get tough.
But what separates Christians and non-Christians is that while others slow down their pace when the race of life gets tough, we pick ours up. That’s how we run in such a way to get the prize.
Finishing strong can look different for most people. For some, finishing strong literally looks like finishing out the rest of your physical life with a faith that is, “…growing more and more, and [a] love…[that] is increasing” (2 Thessalonians 1:3, NIV). For others, finishing strong means remaining faithful to your spouse after the “honeymoon period” is over, continuing to be a man/woman of integrity at your place of work when a shortcut is calling your name, or by simply daily living out your purpose of making disciples (Matthew 28:18-20).
As you study the Scriptures closely, you can see how the Bible’s characters finish out their lives. Some characters dragged their feet across the finish line such as King Solomon who spent the latter part of his life chasing the cares of the world rather than God. Others finished the race by giving it all they had as they came down the final stretch such as Stephen who boldly died a martyr’s death while proclaiming the truth of the Gospel in Acts 7.
But possibly no other character in the Bible exemplifies this “finish strong” mentality quite like Caleb in Joshua 14. After the Israelites had conquered the majority of the Promise Land following their exodus from Egypt, it was time for them to divvy up the land among the 12 tribes of Israel. At this point, Caleb had been around for a while now. In fact, Caleb was 85 years old (Joshua 14:10) and had just finished wandering through the barren desert for 40 years.
Caleb had every right to rest on his past accomplishments and rely on his reputation and high rank to provide for him as he entered the twilight of his life. But Caleb had no such intentions. Instead of settling for the land that had already been conquered, Caleb approached his leader Joshua and asked for the opportunity to fight for his land by saying, “…So here I am today, eighty-five years old! I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. Now give me this hill country that the Lord promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but, the Lord helping me, I will drive them out just as He said” (Joshua 14:10-12, NIV).
As the years of his life waned, Caleb threw the throttle of life to full speed as he tackled mountains and conquered giants. Wouldn’t you love for the same to be said about you as you finish out your life, your job, or your day?
And aren’t you glad that God has a Son who didn’t “throw in the white flag” when things got tough as He headed for the cross to die for our sins? And you know what? Aren’t we called to, “…do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for [us]. He is [our] example and [we] must follow in His footsteps” (1 Peter 2:21, NLT)?
God is not looking for His followers to just begin something, He wants them to finish. What’s your “thing” you need to dedicate yourself to finishing today? Is it finally memorizing those Bible verses, volunteering at the church, or tithing to the Lord? Whatever the Holy Spirit is calling you to do, “…do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ…” (Colossians 3:17, NIV) by preserving to the finish. Then and only then can we join along with Paul in joyfully declaring, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7, NIV).
I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle – victorious.
Comments? Questions? Suggestions?
©Grant Gaines 2013
