Finishing Strong
By Susan Klein
“I consider my life
worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the
Lord Jesus has given me…”
Acts
20:24 (NIV)
In
his book, Nearing Home, Reverand Billy Graham shares an anecdote
involving his wife Ruth. He tells of a time when she was driving along a
stretch of highway that was under construction. As she came to the end of all
the detours and cautionary signs, she found one that read, “End of
Construction. Thank you for your patience.” Chuckling, she conveyed the
incident to her family and proclaimed that was what she wanted inscribed on her
headstone when she died. [1]
While
this is indeed sweetly humorous, it really does speak to each of our hearts. We
are always under construction by our heavenly Father. He is shaping, refining
and perfecting us until we are conformed to the image of His Son. While it is
true we are created in His image at our conception, the conforming of our sin
nature into that of a Christ-nature is quite a lengthy process. Lifelong even.
None of us ever gets to the point where we can say, “I’m finished!” God is not
finished with us until He takes us home to be with Him.
The
problem is, we never know when that end will come. It may be tomorrow or
several years down the road. Too often, we fall into thinking we have lots of
time yet. We may think we can just coast through some of the stretches of
construction because the end is so far away. But what if it were just around
the next bend? Would we be more alert? Would we be more willing to welcome
God’s refining process? Would we be more pliable in the hands of our Creator?
Would those irritating detours become something to look forward to?
What
if we lived each day as if it truly were the end of our construction zone? What
if we got up each morning and spoke the words of the Apostle Paul in the verse
above, “I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race
and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me [today]”? We could truly finish each day strong, and go to sleep
knowing God was whispering, “Well done, my good and faithful child.”
GOING DEEPER:
1. Are you alert to God’s construction in your
life or are you on cruise-control?
2. How are
you steering (each day) toward “completing the task the Lord Jesus has given
you”?
FURTHER READING:
[1]
Nearing Home: Life, Faith, and Finishing Well, Billy Graham, Thomas
Nelson Publishing, ©2013.
Susan enjoys teaching Bible
studies, writing, and mentoring. She and her husband Mark co-lead an on-site small group studying 1
Corinthians with Oakwood's Wednesday Night Community.
