Have you ever wandered through a
graveyard reading a person’s last words on their tombstones? It’s amazing what you can learn about
someone by their epitaph. Take the
following for instance:
“Here lie the bones of Mary Jones; Her life it knew no terrors
Born an old maid, died an old maid; No runs, no hits, no errors.”
Or
this one brief note from an avid shopper:
“Gone to Wal-mart.”
Then there is this “To follow you, I’m not content, Until I
learn which way you went!” And
finally, “Beneath this stone, lies Dr. John Bigelow, an atheist all dressed up
with no place to go.”
When the Apostle Paul knew he was
about to die, he penned these words: “I have fought the good fight. I have
finished the race. I have kept the faith.” I pray we will all be able to write
those words on our tombstones.
We must fight the good fight in our
world and on our own personal battleground. We must fight against drug and
alcohol, poverty and starvation, violence against the innocent at home and
abroad. In our lives, we may need to fight against the demons of illness, depression
or despair. What ever our
battleground is, at the end of the day we want to say “I fought the good fight.”
We must also finish the race. Notice that the scripture says we must finish
the race, not that we must win.
I’m reminded of a vivid scene I saw
when I was still in high school but never forgot. It took place in 1968, in the
summer Olympics at Mexico City where one of the greatest runners, won by coming
in dead last.
John Stephen Alchwari of Tanzania was
tripped up by another runner early in the race but he still crossed the finish
line of the marathon ---well over an hour behind everyone else. He finally hobbled across the finish
with his leg bandaged and bleeding, barely able to walk. When he was asked why he didn’t just
give up along the way, Mr. Alchwari answered, “My country did not send me to
Mexico City to start the race.
They sent me to finish.”
So God sends us to finish. Let us then run our race knowing we do
not run in vain.
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