FINISHING THE RACE

 

2 Timothy 4:7 (NIV)
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

               At 12:12 AM on Wednesday, August 14 my dad finished his race on this earth. He had not run a perfect race, but he fought the good fight and he kept the faith. As I reflect upon my dad’s 96-year journey there are some lessons that I have learned from the way he ran the race.

               At the top of the list has to be faithfulness. Dad demonstrated faithfulness in every aspect of his life. He was faithful to my mom right up to the end. It is hard to think of them apart. They were always a team. During the last few years of my mom’s life, dad was more than her constant companion. He was her support, encouragement, and even her hands and feet. One of mom’s passions was baking cookies. Because of her failing eyesight, dad had to take on the role of making the cookies as mom supervised.

               Growing up, dad was faithful in supporting us in whatever we did. He made it a point to attend our athletic and musical events. He invested in us in informal ways like taking the time to hit fly balls for us in the backyard after work. He invested in more formal ways by leading our Christian Service Brigade at church. Dad supported us but never pushed us. He allowed us to make our own decisions about the direction we would take in life.

               Dad was faithful to his Lord and his church. He served as an elder at his church for more than 50 years. He was the song leader every Sunday for most of that time. Through all of the ups and downs he stayed faithful to his church.

               That leads me to another lesson I learned from dad, responsibility. Not only was dad faithful to his church and his family, he took responsibility for them. Dad didn’t just show up, he got in the game. In fact, whatever dad did, he was totally committed to it. It showed in his work as he routinely was given leadership positions in every company he worked for. At church, he made sure that things that needed to happen happened. His sense of responsibility was often a cause of frustration for him when others failed to follow-through or would drop the ball. When dad committed to something, he was all in.

               A third lesson that I learned from dad is perseverance. Many people, after they retire, begin to coast. Not dad. After he retired, he actually picked up the pace. He and mom got involved with a ministry called Care Lift. Once a year they would go to Lancaster, PA to work in Care Lift’s warehouse organizing supplies to be sent overseas. Not only did dad work there, he oversaw the operation, organizing the teams of people who would come to help. Then in February, they would board a plane and head to Belarus to distribute those supplies. Again, dad lead the team. In addition, they partnered with my brother in two ministries he was involved in. He assisted Tom with a leadership training program that Tom led and accompanied Tom to Russia on several mission trips. All together mom and dad made 19 trips overseas after their retirement.

               You would think that was enough, but dad was not finished. About ten years ago or so mom and dad moved down to North Carolina to be near Tom’s family. This permanent move meant leaving their church in Ohio and getting involved in a new church. Dad jumped in with both feet. The church ran a basketball program for the children of the area called Upwards. Dad took on the job of announcing these basketball games. He also took on the job of leading their Senior Sunday School class. After mom died, we thought we would lose dad as well. He had a total collapse and ended up in a rehab center for a short time. Much to the surprise of everyone, dad bounced back and was able to return to his apartment. In return, he began going back to the rehab center two days a week to volunteer. He went from being a resident to being a valued member of their team. Dad refused to give up.

               The Bible encourages us to look back at those who have gone before us as an encouragement and inspiration for our own race. Hebrews 12 puts it this way. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Hebrews 12:1-3 (NIV) Dad has taken his place among that great cloud of witnesses. Now it is up to us to pick up the baton and run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

Revelation 14:13 (NIV)
Then I heard a voice from heaven say, "Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on." "Yes," says the Spirit, "they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them."

THE CLOCK IS TICKING FOR US ALL

 Psalms 90:12 (NIV)

Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

               Most of us live with a common illusion. It is the idea that we have all the time in the world. The future seems to stretch out ahead of us with unending potential. But it is an illusion. The reality is that the timeline of our life is finite; it has a terminus point.

               There comes point in all of our lives when we realize that we have more days behind us than ahead of us. Even if we live to be 100, in the overall scheme of things, it is a very short amount of time. As Moses expressed it in Psalm 90, The length of our days is seventy years-- or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away. Psalms 90:10 (NIV) James puts it even more dramatically when he writes, Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. James 4:13-14 (NIV) No matter how we look at it, life it short and our time on earth is fleeting.

               The question is then, what should we do with the time that we have? Moses instructs us to “number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Being aware of just how short our life is is an essential ingredient to living life well. We can either waste our life or we can invest our life for eternity.

               C.S. Lewis wrote that all of us are shaping the person we will be in eternity by the way we live our life today. We are either in the process of becoming something so glorious that we can not imagine it or something so hideous that we would be repelled by the image. His point is that living our current life with eternity in mind is not only important, it is essential.

               This is an idea that we find threaded through all of scripture. What we do with the time we have on this earth matters. It matters to God and it should matter to us. Each day of our life is an opportunity to grow in Christlikeness. As Paul writes in Ephesians 5:15-16, Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

               Currently the Olympic games are going on in Paris. Every athlete who is competing in those games knows the importance of redeeming the time. In order for them to perform at their best, they needed to invest hours and hours into practice, preparing for their ultimate goal. Paul often used this image to illustrate how we live our lives. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. 1 Corinthians 9:25-27 (NIV) The last thing that anyone of us wants is to get to the end of our lives and learn that we have been disqualified for the prize.

               Right now, my father is edging his way to the finish line of life. I don’t know when he will cross that line, but I know that the time is short. It has caused me to think again about my own life. How will I use the days that I have left on this earth? Will I use them for the glory of God or will I waste them on the fleeting pleasures of this world? To be brutally honest, it will probably be a combination of both. But I can honestly say that my eyes are on the goal. My deepest desire is to use my time on earth wisely, so that one day I might stand in Christ’s presence and hear Him say, well done, good and faithful servant.

2 Timothy 4:6-8 (NIV)
For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day--and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.