I Want to Finish Well for God’s Glory

Turning 50 hit me hard. Somehow, it felt a lot different than turning 40. “Over the hill” felt pretty much the same as any other year with life and ministry flowing along as steadily as always. But 50 stopped me in my tracks with the dawning realization that I’m most likely entering the final third of my life. How much longer will I have to live and serve the Lord? 25 years? 20 years? Less? Only God know, but this milestone prompted me to step back and consider a vital question: what does it look like to finish well with whatever years the Lord entrusts to me?

No assumptions

Even a surface survey of God’s Word reveals that finishing well should not be taken for granted. J. Robert Clinton, former professor of leadership at Fuller Theological Seminary, estimated that only 30% of Old Testament leaders finished well. I’m not about to quibble over the accuracy of his estimate. If anything, that percentage seems a bit high.

Having safely come through the flood on an ark built by faith, Noah seems to have let up at the end of his life, falling into sinful drunkenness and shameful nakedness (Genesis 9). Lot started well, having left everything familiar in Ur to follow his uncle Abraham in an unknown land. The Bible’s curtain closes on him drunken and destitute in a cave, committing incest with his two worldly daughters (Genesis 19). Aaron stood with his brother Moses against Pharaoh, speaking for God. He became Israel’s first high priest. He also led the people of Israel into idolatry and participated in a rebellion against his own brother (Exodus 33 and Number 12).

Saul, Israel’s first king, started well. He won several military victories by humbly trusting God and seemed eager to please Samuel. But he ended up wasting much of his reign in jealous pursuit of David, eventually committing suicide in battle after consulting a medium (1 Samuel 31). Solomon was immensely blessed by God with wisdom, wealth, and prosperity. He built the Temple, recorded countless proverbs, ushered in Israel’s Golden Age. He also went on to marry many foreign wives who turned his heart away from God (1 Kings 11). And so it goes.

Gary Ryan Blair got it right when he said that “many will start fast; few will finish strong.” I don’t know about you, but I want to be one of those few.

Few finish strong.

What’s the point? As seen in the lives of these men of old who began life with such promise, we shouldn’t assume that we will remain true to God throughout our lives. Gary Ryan Blair got it right when he said that “many will start fast; few will finish strong.” I don’t know about you, but I want to be one of those few. But how is that possible? The author of Hebrews tells us how. “Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfector of our faith, who, for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1-2).

Our hope in finishing well

Jesus is the ultimate example of finishing well. He is also the only hope we have to finish well ourselves. The motivation that enabled Jesus to endure the cross was “the joy that was set before him.” This joy caused him to “despise the shame.” God the Father, author of the glorious plan of salvation established before the foundation of the world, set this greater joy before Jesus. He did this for our benefit as well as for his glory. So Jesus looked past the pain, the sin, the suffering to see the eternal blessing that his death would bring to me – and to countless other hopeless and helpless sinners. Nothing could deter him from that goal. He endured to the very end (John 19:30).

And because Jesus endured, I can also endure. I can keep on running the race. Not just starting well, but finishing strong. Runners call this, “running through the finish line.” How you finish determines the quality of the race: not just starting well. Yes, I might have to adjust my pace in the final third of life, but it is possible to keep on running, giving it my all to the end – not for accolades, but for God’s glory.

Others finished well.

For our encouragement, God has given us examples of other people who did finish well. These are people like us who faltered and stumbled, but nevertheless endured. People like Job, and Abraham, and Joseph, and Moses, and Joshua, and Caleb, and Ruth, and Daniel, and Paul. Writing under inspiration, Paul recorded his thoughts about finishing well: “For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:6-8). Paul ran through the finish line.

I’m not Paul. And I’m certainly not Jesus. But I cling to hope that I also will finish well. My hope does not lie in some unique trait that I possess or to some great degree of commitment that I claim. No, when all is said and done, finishing well ultimately depends on God. I can take heart because God always finishes what he starts. “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:6). And so I face my final third of life with hopeful confidence that God will help me to finish well…for his glory.

Photo by Steward Masweneng on Unsplash