Yes, you can start late, stumble, fall down, make mistakes, look different, be laughed at, and still reach your finish line.
Finishing strong matters.
Finishing strong does not always infer finishing first or finishing unscathed. It sometimes means limping to the finish line.
1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Derek Redmond did not finish first, He finished last.nHe limped his way through, but he reached the finish line. He finished several minutes after the first prize was claimed. With torn muscles and in excruciating pain, he forged his way to the finish line.
Was he late? Yes, very late.
Did he look weird? Yes, the sight of him hopping on a leg with arms around his father’s neck on the track field was unfamiliar to the cheering crowd. But he reached the finish line.
Did he stumble? Yes, but his eyes were tenaciously set on the finish line.
“I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all”. Ecclesiastes 9: 11Life is a race. But life’s race is not for the swiftest or the fastest, it is for those who endure to the finish line.
The first shall be last and the last shall be first. Matthew 20: 18To Christ, finishing first or finishing last does not seem important, what seems important is reaching the finish line, your own finish line.
Well, that is counter sportsmanship as we know it, but that is life’s race as God intended.
Your race is not a competition, you alone run in it.
It still doesn’t matter how you reach the finishing line, unscathed or limping. What matters is that you reach the finish line.
God rewards the finisher, the one who endures it all to the end.
Endurance gets us through to the finish line. But we all know the enemy of endurance is discouragements. Our mistakes, missteps and failings make us stumble and fall in our track. But what keeps us down is discouragement.
So this is for you, currently overwhelmed by your failings, and you think quitting that race is the answer, read on as I share 4 short motivations I believe will get you back on your track!
1- Motivation for the late starter
Entering the race late can sometimes be the enemy of finishing the race.
When you look around you, you are discouraged about forging towards the finish line because all others are ahead of you. I have dreams and hopes from my youthful days that I still haven’t set out to live. Thoughts of starting late sometimes hamper a start and a late start sometimes obscures the finish line.
Abraham started very late! When he looked around, every other person on the track field is already called a father or a grandfather. Very late!
Yet he stayed the course.
Today, we all say father Abraham!
Starting late doesn’t mean you won’t get to your finish line, so on your feet and go!
2- Motivation for the one who was ridiculed
You fell so loud that the spectators can’t stop laughing.
You failed so terribly at your first attempt and that ended the race for you.
Your dream sounded so foolish, the whole world laughed at you.
It should not keep your focus off the finish line. Boy! This is your race and only you run in it!
Run!
Go for your finish line!
Noah was mocked! He raced to build an ark, yet no flood for over a century!
Was he mocked? Yes, for a whole century!
The joke? Who put the ark on a mountaintop?
Noah did! Ha ha!
But he kept his gaze on his finish line (salvation from the flood), and he had the last laugh.
3- Motivation for the one who made a lot of mistakes
So you jumped the gun over and over again and again. You were disqualified. You decided never to go near the track again. You declared your race over. Wait, who doesn’t make mistakes?
David fumbled. Peter betrayed Christ. Judas betrayed Christ.
The difference between Judas and everyone else is that Judas quit the race before reaching the finish line.
There must be something more than the first prize in the race otherwise athletes will give it all up when that prize has been claimed.
It is called the finish line.
It is called beating our personal best.
It makes you a better person.
Motivation for the one who stumbled and fell
You set out early.
You waited so patiently for the sound of the gun. Howbeit, you stumbled and fell off the track, you missed the mark.
You look ahead, it seems everyone else is ahead of you.
Beaten!
Battered!
Shamed!
So you think the race over. You cowered on the sidelines thinking it is not worth limping to the finish line.
Get back on track, you can still reach your finish line.
It’s your race, and you are not in for the first prize, you are in it for the finish line.
So, RUN!
We are pressed on all sides, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed. 2 Corinthians 4:8-9nGod rewards the finisher, the one who endures it all to the end.
What he has committed to your hands, God expects nothing less than the finish line. He’s not moved by your escapades or lack of. He simply wants you to endure to the end the race that is set before you.
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