Finishing Strong

I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. 2 Timothy 4:7

Paul wrote this late in his life, telling Timothy that despite the struggles, he is finishing his race and he is finishing strong. Finishing strong, I like the sound of that. 

Paul had his share of challenges: multiple beatings, a stoning, shipwrecks and other perils he mentions in 2 Corinthians 11:23-28. By any standards you want to use, just experiencing a couple of these things would be hard to handle but Paul experienced them all. When you look at Paul’s attitude toward all he had experienced, he refers to them as “light afflictions” and that they are temporary. He also tells us that the glory we will experience in the Lord outweighs the suffering we will experience in this life. (2 Cor. 4:17)

How was he able to look at it from this perspective? How did he hold up to all these things and not surrender to the weariness, pain, or to the devil’s attacks? The key is in his heart’s desire. Paul had a driving motivation to hear Jesus say, “Well done good and faithful servant” and to know in hearing this he had finished his race well. Paul accepted the path that was laid out before him and accepted it with his whole heart, come what may, because he knew it would bring glory to God. He did not look at it from the perspective of “what kind of trials do I have to experience today?” He looked at what he was trying to accomplish for God’s Kingdom. By looking at it that way it took on a different meaning for him.


I had the opportunity to finish a different kind of race yesterday. I ran in the Spartan Race Military Sprint on Ft Carson Army Base. An approximately 4.5 miles cross country run with 27 different physical challenges to perform along the way, some easier than expected and some harder, but I worked my way through. Aside from the sore muscles and the assorted cuts and scrapes on my arms and legs I acquired during the race, at the end of the race I received a T-shirt and a finishers medal, and like they say on their website, bragging rights. But the thing that meant more to me than any of that was being greeted by my brother at the finish line, getting a hug, and hearing him say “Good Job!” It has had me thinking about what it will be like when I reach the end of my life’s race and I am able to hear Jesus tell me “Well done good and faithful servant.”

In my devotional reading the other day the following question was posed: When you stand before Jesus there will be one thing He will want to know, “Did you do what I asked you to do, or did you get distracted and let the cares of life stop you from fulfilling your assignment?”  

We need to remember that the problems in life really are temporary and that they will pass. The thing that isn’t temporary is our obedience to God, there really isn’t anything more important than doing what God has called us to do. Keeping this in perspective will help us live a more balanced and committed life. So, even if we earn “bragging rights” for accomplishing something like the race I ran in yesterday, it really doesn’t mean anything. On the other hand, the things we do to advance God’s Kingdom by following His call in our lives, these are the things that mean something. These are the things that are eternal.  

There is definitely an abundance of pain and suffering going on in the world today, and we all have examples we can give of our own experiences, but how are we looking at the trials we are going through? Are we letting them distract us from the path that has been laid out before us? Or are we facing them head on, overcoming them in the power and strength of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? We are called to fight, not to just sit there and let life run us over.  Despite the struggles we face, if we keep our focus on God we can finish strong as well.