Finishing Well
(Discussion notes below)
In 1968, the country of Tanzania selected John Stephen Akhwari to represent them in the Mexico City Olympics. During the race, Akhwari stumbled and fell, severely injuring his knee and ankle. Long after the winner had crossed the finish line and with only a few thousand spectators left in the stadium, a police siren went off alerting everyone that one final competitor was entering the stadium – it was Akhwari. After he finished the race a reporter asked him, “Why did you continue the race after you were so badly injured?” Akhwari answered, “My country did not send me 5000 miles to start the race, they sent me 5000 miles to finish the race.”
Everyone is good at starting, starting is easy. Finishing is hard. I can tell you plenty of projects I have started, but far fewer that I have endured to completion. How are you at endurance? At staying at it until the finish?
Did you know that 49% of fatal plane accidents happen during final descent and 80% of all mountaineering accidents happen on the descent? We have been talking all year about fighting shadows – seven lies that prevent us from being fully alive and awake to God’s movement. These seven things cast shadows all the way to the end of life.
I was talking to a retired friend in his 70s. In response to my question to him about retirement, he said. “Well, it’s different because of workload, but it’s not different in terms of the need for discipline. I have seen so many men not take care of their bodies or their souls and have made a shipwreck of themselves after retirement – build and keep the same healthy habits for your body and soul.” In other words – don’t crash on the descent!!
There are several Biblical examples of great finishers and I will mention three.
Moses:
Imagine for a moment being enlisted by God for Moses’ task. Moses, you are now 80 years old. What I require from you is your best effort for your final 40 years – you will be leading some of the most difficult, demanding people. They will constantly complain about your leadership. At one point, your own family members will challenge your leadership. The people you lead will suggest they should have never even started the journey. Some will look for a different leader to take them back into slavery in Egypt. The assignment will be so spiritually, physically and emotionally difficult that near the end of the 40 years you have a meltdown which will cost you from crossing into the Promised Land with them. You will only deliver them to the finish line, but not cross into it yourself.
Yet – Moses is such a great example of perseverance! He was sent by God not to just start a race but to finish it…….and that’s what he did – he delivered the people to the Promise Land.
Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho. And the Lord showed him all the land, Gilead as far as Dan, 2 all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the western sea, 3 the Negeb, and the Plain, that is, the Valley of Jericho the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar. 4 And the Lord said to him, “This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, ‘I will give it to your offspring.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there.” 5 So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord, 6 and he buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth-peor; but no one knows the place of his burial to this day. 7 Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eye was undimmed, and his vigor unabated. Deuteronomy 34:1-7
I love the description here. Why did Moses die? “According to the will of the Lord.” It’s like God said, “Moses, you ran all the way through the tape, now come home!” Notice that “His eye was undimmed and his vigor unabated.” Moses didn’t die because he didn’t take care of himself physically, but I think this has a double meaning. It’s not just a description of Moses’ physical fitness, but also Moses kept a fresh vision for God and continued to give his energy to do God’s will. Moses landed the plane of his life well.
If you have gray hair – do you have a fresh vision and vigor for what God has for you in this season or are you coasting?
Jesus and his warning:
Jesus is the new and better Moses. Jesus leads a new kind of exodus. He brings people out of the slavery of their own sin and into the freedom of the Gospel. Jesus led the same difficult people Moses led, people who would rather live in slavery than in freedom. Jesus’ own family rejected him, his closest friends abandoned him at a critical moment. Eventually the people he came to save put him to death. As it turns out this was all part of God’s plan. Jesus wasn’t a victim, but a volunteer. He agreed to die in order that we might live…but he had to endure to the end.
The last recorded words by Jesus in the Gospel of John are, “It is finished.” You might say, God sent Jesus into the world not to just start the race but to finish. Jesus’ finish gave us eternal life. Just prior to his death, he warns those who wish to follow him, “See that no one leads you astray…many who follow me will experience tribulation and be put to death, and you will be hated for my name’s sake…many will fall away…lawlessness will increase, the love of many will grow cold…but the one who endures to the end will be saved.”
In Greek, the term “fall away” means “ensnared.” Think of the parable of the sower. A seed fell among thorns and they choked off the word. What blocks spiritually healthy air flow all the way to the end are the “anxieties of this world” and “deceitfulness of wealth.”
“Lawlessness will increase and love grows cold.” If you don’t put to death sin at an earlier point in your life (lust, pride, love of money, fear), these things blow like a cold, steady wind through your life and your love for God grows cold. You don’t finish the race.
Apostle Paul – A 3D vision to finish well:
24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control,[b] lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. I Corinthians 9:24-27
1. Discipline – He goes into strict training.
Discipline is what you do in the dark hours of the morning, when no one else is watching.
2. Direction – “I do not run like a man running aimlessly.”
You know where you are going and you stay on track. I wonder, how many of you have a definite direction? Do you have a vision for your life? Sure, life throws you curve balls, but in general you have a vision for yourself as a leader, businessman, churchman, family man. Or do you run aimlessly hoping to arrive somewhere worthwhile? Do you plan to end up somewhere on purpose?
3. Denial – “I beat my body and make it my slave.”
Are you able to say “NO” to your physical desires? Who is in the driver’s seat of your life? “Your emotions make wonderful passengers but horrible drivers. Emotions are like a 2 year old child, they need to be in the car, we don’t stuff them in the trunk. We strap them in, we engage with them, but we don’t put them behind the wheel.”
Questions:
- Moses: “His eye was undimmed and his vigor unabated.” For those over age 50 – Are you keeping a fresh vision for what God is doing in the world and are you figuring out ways to give your energy to that vision? Or are you coasting? For those under 50 – Do you have a plan where your life ends up somewhere on purpose?
- Jesus’ warnings: Don’t “fall away.” How might your anxieties about the world or being deceived by wealth be causing you to drift away from God? Don’t “grow cold.” What do you need to be on the lookout for in your life (sins) which, if not addressed, will cause your love for God to grow cold?
- Discuss Paul’s 3D vision for finishing well. (pick one to talk about for yourself)
- Discipline – I train when no one else is watching
- Direction – I have a vision for my life
- I am/am not a slave to my physical cravings
Iron Leadership materials: