Finishing Well

Monday, October 2, 2023

I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding.  For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return.  May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation—the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ—for this will bring much glory and praise to God.  Philippians 1:9-11

Accomplishing anything worthwhile requires fidelity to what you are called to do.  Soldiers, public officials, and even husbands and wives take a public, solemn oath to discharge their duties faithfully.  There are stages to any undertaking, something like puzzle pieces fitting together.  These include thinking, (learning what the task entails), planning (how the task will be accomplished, the skills, people, supplies needed), and pulling the trigger, or acting on the plans made. 

This was Paul’s prayer for the Philippian believers.  He prayed for their knowledge of Jesus; he wanted them to know-Him, not just know about Him[1].  He wanted them to open their lives fully to Jesus, because Paul had experienced what he was telling them – when you are deeply-immersed in fellowship with Christ it changes your character, your inner being…you become a new creature!^{(see 2 Corinthians 5:17)}  

We become new because our old, sinful nature cannot worship or serve God.

It is this becoming new which drives us past the thinking/learning phase to acting on well-thought-out knowing and planning.  These puzzle parts interlock in such a way to bring meaning to the investment of time and energy.  And it is in the locking of such pieces of our lives that we find God’s creation and power.  Like the creator of a cosmic jigsaw puzzle, meant for others to reassemble, God gives us the box, and describes what the picture will look like once we’ve assembled it.  In faith, we think/pray/imagine how the pieces might fit; in faith we plan, laying pieces next to each other, keeping the finish line of God’s Kingdom in view; in faith we act, placing piece-after-piece together, witness here, worship there, generous giving to those in need, studying, fellowshipping, keeping Christ preeminent in all we do.  This is a holy life, dedicated to God.  This was Paul’s prayer for his beloved co-laborers at Philippi.  He wanted for them what he’d known and lived, and for which he was imprisoned at Rome.

Finishing well is the bottom line for puzzles, as it is for the Christian life.  Paul considered his puzzle a race.  He wanted to finish well, and that meant keeping faithful to Christ.  The last piece of Paul’s puzzle was to pass-along the faith to the saints.  I heard a story the other day about an automobile racing legend…long before NASCAR.  He was known for his team building the fastest cars.  In every start he would have the lead by a country mile.  But in his career, he never won a single race!  His cars were built to run like lightning, but, like lightning, their powerful speed was short-lived.  They were built for a sprint, not a marathon.

For You Today 

Where are you in the race?  Paul was in mid-life when it all got turned upside-down; he had to start over and run hard to catch-up with God’s plan for his life.  Paul is the premier empirical evidence that it isn’t if you started well, but rather if you finish well that counts in Heaven’s ledger.  Here’s Paul’s accounting:

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful.  2 Timothy 4:7

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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Title Image(s) courtesy of Pixabay.com                      

Images without citation are in public domain.  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©  

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[1] I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death,  Philippians 3:10

The Last Great Race on Earth

[1]   

Thursday, March 19, 2015

 I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us. Philippians 3:14 (NLT)

There was a story in yesterday’s New York Times about the Iditarod, that 1,000-mile dogsled “mush” across Alaska; it is billed as The Last Great Race on Earth[2] because of the challenging and often brutal weather conditions.  It is not an adventure for the faint of heart!

And neither is following Jesus Christ if you seriously intend to finish the race.

In writing to the church at Philippi the apostle Paul used the imagery of running the race as a metaphor for the life in Christ.  Unlike most “races” where there is only one winner, the course for believers is a lifetime event where all who believe may “win”.  It is somewhat like the Iditarod in that respect; many start but not all finish.  Some drop out when the mushing gets dicey!  And that is sad for the church and the Kingdom of God.

Did you notice how Paul detailed his goal?  First and pre-eminently Paul wanted to press on to reach the end of the race….  For Paul that meant planting churches, encouraging the churches he’d started, and giving his life’s wisdom and purpose into the lives of young church leaders like Timothy, so they would be equipped to carry on the work.

As a young pastor I had some “Pauls” in my life.  One of them was a member of my first church after seminary.  Pat was a retired minister with knowledge of God and a passion for people – particularly young pastors. 

He also had a great sense of humor. 

Whenever I preached what he and I both knew was a “less than Sermon-on-the-Mount” kind of sermon, my dear friend would come alongside me, place his hand on my shoulder, and whisper out of the side of his mouth, “something stinks in here”.  Pat could help me be a little less serious about myself, which always helped me be in better focus and balance as a person and as a preacher. 

When I preached Pat’s funeral we carried him around the little lake to the church graveyard, and when we were all in place there was one flash of lightning and a crack of thunder, followed by the worst “frog-strangling” downpour we’d seen in five years.  I knew as we ran for cover Pat didn’t want any more “stinkers” – especially over his tombstone. 

Still makes me smile.

And that is part of this Iditarod of a Christ-follower’s race.  It’s much longer than a thousand miles; this race reaches from cradle to grave, through time and space, all the way to eternity.

For each of us it is literally the last great race on earth.

And we need all the “Pats” who will come alongside us in the long, icy, hard trails across our pilgrim pathway. 

For You Today

Maybe you’ve got a “Pat” in your life.  That’s great!

Now, isn’t it time for you to be a “Pat” in somebody else’s life?

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[1] Title Image: By Frank Kovalchek from USA, via Wikimedia Commons

[2] ^©New York Times, Enduring the Iditarod as Equals Katie Orlinsky, March 13, 2015