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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There are about 2,600 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road library.

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

On the Right Side of History

 

Monday, January 25, 2021

The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you.  I will make you into a great nation.  I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others.  I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt.  All the families on earth will be blessed through you.”  Genesis 12:1-3

I’m old enough to have a history with experience.  My first vote in a presidential election was in 1968; in a total of 14 elections, I voted for the winner 8 times.  In Las Vegas, being right 57% of the time means you go home with full pockets.  But I’m not sure this applies; it’s just reporting the results like the newscasters.  “Winning” is so very temporary and having the most votes simply equates with popularity.

As each of those voting seasons came to an end, the “winning side” claimed a new era of peace, justice, and the American way, that the “other side” had been defeated, and now we can begin again to set things right.  And every time I heard one of those afterglow statements of victory, I always had an uneasiness about the certitude of the winner.  Depending on whether my vote had been for the victor, my feeling was either agreeably-uncertain, or disdainfully-uncertain.  I always had a sense of what-if, as in what-if-my-vote-was-on-the-wrong-side-of-history?

Now, before I lose you in thoughts of either gloating over winning, or sour-grapes for losing, this is about neither.  It has to do with choosing the right-side of history, which has nothing to do with which side may “win” or “lose”. 

Winston Churchill is often attributed for originating the phrase history is written by victors, however it is a phrase much older than World War II.  It is also suspect according to some:  One author has it that, [t]he more accurate quote would be, ‘History is temporarily twisted by people who’re going to profit from it in the short term.’[1] 

Whether it comes from the political right or left, I think this expediency motive may prove flawless.  It’s simply a matter of understanding that publicity matters when it comes to staying in power; when it comes to holding the high ground in public opinion, perception is its’ own reality.

Now, all of that is a matter of human relationships, political machinations, and intentions of those who would be the victor, not the vanquished.  The tides of popularity and so-called success are short-lived. 

So, what do we make of all this?  Is this just cynicism, or hyper-criticism?  Should we not participate in it at all…summarily trash everything?  Absolutely not!

So, what then?  What is the purpose in all of this?  Why even bring up the matter if there is no end to it? 

Well, I’m glad you asked.

Like the unknown cards in another’s hand, God stands behind the curtain of our ability to see.  And, as with Abraham, the Lord stands ready to bless or curse, depending on whether we intend to act with or against His will.  This is the nature of God in His complete Sovereignty.  Sovereign God is the ultimate winner in complete righteousness.  His will is immutable and irresistible.  And, therefore, it is God’s will which constructs, writes, and validates any “history”.

For You Today

If you want to be on the right side of history, it is a matter of surrendering one’s heart and life to God’s will. 

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

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[1] Title Image: Courtesy of Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

For other posts on Genesis 12 see Yield - Part 2 and Leaving and Arriving      

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[1] Shubham Jain in “History Is Written By Victors” Is A Foolish Phrase