Finish

Graduation Season

It’s that time of year when the students and teachers are eager for the school year to come to a close, and the tenured senior class is on the brink of graduation. These students will complete the school year for the final time. It is the end of their basic educational journey. Whether these are public, private, or homeschool students the next chapter of their lives will be something different and new from what has come before for them.

This is usually associated with a mixture of emotion for everyone involved. Joy, fear, nostalgia, and excitement can easily fill our hearts as we experience these moments of transition in our lives. Maybe it is a relief for many that this chapter is finally over. For others, maybe there is fear about the changes and challenges that are coming next. In either case, this milestone, while it is a marker on the road, is not the ultimate finish line. To some degree, this is a good lesson for us that ends are not full stops, but only the transition that moves us forward.

Endings

There are many different types of endings that we will face in life. Some that we are eagerly anticipating and some that we wish would tarry forever. I’m sure we have all experienced those moments when we wish that we could just hit pause and linger in that moment. On the other hand, there are many times that we might want to push fast forward and get past a particularly difficult season. As we age, I’m sure almost everyone longs for the opportunity to hit rewind or get a do over. However, time just keeps going and so each ending of one thing leads to the beginning of another.

Oftentimes, endings can leave us with a feeling of accomplishment and at other times we are left with a hunger for more. In either case we know that endings are sure to come. In our temporal experience, we have only understood things from the perspective of beginnings and endings. Try to imagine eternity. It is very difficult, if not completely impossible, because we only experience beginnings and endings. Some religions have tried to satisfy the God given longing of every human heart for eternity through appealing to some mystical, cyclical explanation but in the scripture it is God who reigns over time and eternity (Exodus 15:17-18).

Finish Well

Given the reality that we all will face the end of many things in our lives and ultimately the end of this physical life then we ought to live in light of that ending. To some degree, even an empty culture such as the one we live in understands this with the YOLO mindset. But what I am postulating is that we should live and act with humility and virtue, so that in each ending we are finishing well. The reality is that the end is coming. We can be found fallen or failed or we can strive to finish well.

This was the desire that the Apostle Paul exhibited when he wrote to his young colleague Timothy concerning the end of not only his ministry but his life for the sake of the gospel (2 Timothy 4:6-8). In the text, Paul tells Timothy how he has “fought the good fight, finished the race and kept the faith.” Looking with Spiritual insight into the sureness of his soon death he was able to point out to Timothy that he had finished well. 

We must realize that finishing well is not as much a matter of being successful or accomplished, but rather, a matter of being faithful. In the end, there will be many who despite being blessed with many talents, advantages, and even prosperity will ultimately not finish well because of a lack of integrity and faithfulness. At the same time, many who have not had those same privileges will be found having fought hard and finished well, because they simply proceeded in faithful obedience to the clear commands of Christ. This kind of faithfulness is the essence of truly saving and transforming faith.

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