I have fought a good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith – 2 Timothy 4:7
John Maxwell wrote, “Quitting is more about WHO you are than WHERE you are.”
As a pastor, can I open up and share with you my heart? You might not like it, but I hope God will use what I have to say to reach one or two of you out there.
In ministry, I often come across Christians who START well, but they invariably do not finish in the same way they start. Here are a few examples:
Some get excited about serving in a ministry, but then stop serving and end up leaving it to others without saying a word.
Some get excited about coming to church, then after a while, they stop coming and upon being contacted they mentioned they had left and gone somewhere else.
Some share how God is moving them into a particular calling, and then when they do not see the results they expected, choose to throw their calling to the side for something else.
Some start off so well that they are chosen to be leaders in the church, but then you look around for them and they are gone! Not a word. It is as if the Rapture occurred and only they have been taken!
I see this so often that I had to take a few minutes this morning and talk about it. We are great at starting, but so lousy when it comes to finishing the race.
Now don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with leaving church and finding another one to attend. But it would be nice to say, “Goodbye,” since relationships were formed during a period of time. To do so is the Christian thing to do. Would Jesus just get up and depart leaving a string of good and unfinished relationships along the way?
I remember when Paul was about to leave the church at Ephesus in Acts 20. He called to him the elders of the church (v. 17), he encouraged them and reminded them of his ministry; he informed them of his plans, warned them of coming dangers, weep and embraced them, prayed with them, and then he left (cf. vv. 18-38). Paul started the church at Ephesus, and when it came time to leave, he finished well by leaving well. He valued the relationships formed and wanted the church he served to know just how important they are to him and that distance and location would not be an issue between them since they serve an omnipresent God.
We need to finish well!
This past Easter was another example of how we do not finish well. We know as Christians, based on years of experience, that there are two Sundays out of the year where the unsaved tend to frequent the church – Christmas and Easter. However, I was surprised to hear how many took off on Easter Sunday in order to spend time with their families. Many of whom were leaders in the church with key responsibilities.
So Sunday came, and we had a lot of visitors and guests, but the laborers were few to help take care of them. Those who did sacrifice their time had double the load. And they had families and loved ones to be with to, but they chose to give Easter to the Lord and to be in church for the sake of the lost. You see, there are two things Jesus will probably say to us when we see Him in heaven: “Welcome home and who did you bring with you?”
God is not opposed to spending time with family. God gave you your family for a reason and wants you to love them and build relationships with them. But not to give one to two hours out of twenty four on Easter to serve the body of Christ and to be there for the sake of those who are lost is another example of not finishing well.
I even came across one example in which one spouse was so mad at another because one wanted to attend the Easter Service and serve the Lord, while the other wanted the spouse not go to church and attend a family gathering instead. I thought to myself, “How easy it is for us to allow Satan to make us stumble over some of the most spiritually important issues in life. It is as if we have lost our bearings or our spiritual compass has been damaged.”
Unfortunately, in many ways starting is the easy part. Ralph Waldo Emerson observed, “The great majority of men are bundles of beginnings.”
What about you? Are you merely a starter? When the enthusiasm for a new idea fades, when the passion cools, when the odds against you increase and the results diminish, when it looks as if success is impossible, will you maintain your intensity and keep going? Are you tenacious?
Quitting is more about who you are than where you are.
Everyone faces difficulty when working toward a dream. And if someone fails, he can make excuses for what went wrong, how the unexpected happened, how someone let him down, how circumstances worked against him.
But the reality is that the external things do not stop people. Those who achieve their dreams don’t have an easier path than those who do not. They just have a different internal attitude about the journey. The great artist Leonardo da Vinci once declared, “Obstacles cannot crush me. Every obstacle yields to stern resolve. He who is fixed on a star does not change his mind.”
The one who achieves the dream sees the journey differently.
Instead of thinking, “Not enough people believe in me. I’ll never make it,” he says, “My belief in myself is enough; I can make it.”
Instead of, “It’s taking too long to realize my dream,” she reminds herself, “Dreams are realized one day at a time.”
Rather than, “Enough is enough! I’ve taken enough hits!” she declares, “I’ve come too far to give up now.”
Instead of, “I don’t have the strength to hold onto my dream,” he tells himself, “Hold on a little longer. The darkest hour comes just before the dawn.”
Novelist Harriet Beecher Stowe said, “When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.”
And I love how H.E. Jensen expressed an achiever’s way of thinking: “The man who wins may have been counted out several times, but he didn’t hear the referee.” The only real guarantee for failure is to stop trying.
We love to start things, but are so poor in finishing. As a pastor, I see this so often that it becomes mind boggling! This not only happens in church, but also in marriages. Look at the alarming divorce rate today among those who profess faith in Christ. When I was working in the market place as a Human Resource Director, I had seen this done over and over. We hire people for jobs. They start off well. Then something else distracts them and they do not show up for work. Upon investigation it was discovered that they had found another job and was too ashamed to say anything about it. Out in the world I can understand this occurring, but in the church among believers who claim to know Jesus. This astounds me! What about you?
Can I make a simple suggestion: Please do not start anything in life and even in the church without doing what Jesus commanded. What did Jesus teach? Jesus said, “Before you build a tower, FIRST sit down and count the cost.” Why? So that others (Christians and unsaved alike), won’t say, “This man began to build, but he was not able to finish” (Luke 14:28-30).
So when things go wrong, when the obstacles seem too great, when the difficulties get to be too much, when your dream seems to be impossibly far away, your job is to simply keep going. If you stop, it won’t be because of what happens AROUND you. It will be because of what happens IN you. Choose to see things differently. Success is probably closer than you think. Just keep moving forward. We’re a team, right? And the body of Christ is depending on you to help bring in the harvest.
All hands on deck!
