There are eleven days left on the World Race. I won’t write another “you know you’re in month eleven when” blogs, because my squad has a good number of those already, all of which are extensive, hilarious, and frankly spot on. I will say, briefly, that every part of me is teetering on its last legs—and this is normal! My clothes are faded and ripped, my shoulders and legs are sore, every one—literally—of my electronics is broken, and the pages of my first of three journals for this year are already yellowing.
For me, this whole month has been (and this next week will be), not been about finishing strong—in and of itself, that is. “Finishing strong”, as an idea in and of itself, is tired and overused. I’m not even sure that it’s always an effective encouragement to give, either. Some people are truly exhausted and the Bible says, “Come to (Jesus), all who are weary and burdened and (he) will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28)—not more work.
And, my primary task as a Christian is to know God and to believe God. Jesus’ disciples asked him, “What can we do to perform the works (plural) of God?” (John 6:28) and he responded, “This is the work (singular) of God—that you believe in the one he has sent.” Could it even be possible that I could be doing the work (singular) of God in month eleven by resting in Christ? Absolutely.
So, all of this goes to say that “finishing strong”, to me, is not a universally applicable principle, in and of itself. However, God has put it on my heart to finish strong, in the traditional sense. I am called to know and believe in Jesus Christ and the way that I am called to do this is to be an imitator of Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1). Though the Gospels certainly don’t cover the entire realm of possible scenarios Jesus could have gotten himself into, I have found that the question “How would Jesus act in this (fill in the 21st century scenario here)?” usually has a very easy answer. I think that Jesus Christ would pour out his sweat, his body, and his mind, were he a month eleven World Racer.
God has provided me with incredible opportunities to do just that this month. From (lots of) manual labor to basketball to playing with children to leading Bible studies for former street boys, the ministry I have been able to do is endless. There will be time to reflect and to rest—“keep my Sabbath”—but I do not think that that time is now, for me. I want so badly to use this as nothing more than a time to think back on God’s goodness over the past ten months—and believe me, I certainly think about that as I lay in bed at night—but I do not think that Christ would have done that alone.
As Jesus was headed to the cross—after traveling the nations for three years, seeing endless fruit in ministry, and having endless impact for the Kingdom—it would have been easy for him to check out and ease out of his last days of ministry, and say, “It was a good run; let’s celebrate.” Instead, he said, “Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour.” (John 12:27)—“My heart is troubled because I’m tired and beat up and afraid, my Dad could bail me out, but no—I am just now moving into my element,” in other words.
Jesus said, “It is finished” (John 19:30) just before he died, but he said this when it actually was finished. I want—badly—to do the same. It hasn’t always been easy. I would hate to deceive future World Racers that way. There are so many times when I just feel like sitting on my bed, closing my eyes, and making a list of all the foods I would like to eat at home.
One thing they told us at training camp was, “Make stone cold decisions with a red hot heart.” We can have passionate hearts about an issue, but if that passion does not trickle down to our “stone cold” day-to-day decisions, we will have little impact and little, well—real passion. This does not mean that every day-to-day decision is made with superfluous joy and ecstasy, but rather that even fairly unemotional—“stone cold”—decisions, when made again and again and again, can amount to a very passionate life.
This applies to my month eleven experience because I am trying not to detach my passion to finish well from “stone cold” day-to-day decisions that must be made to do so. There are a lot of yes’s—“Yes, I will play basketball with you,” or “Yes, I will work for another 45 minutes before lunch”—and a lot of no’s as well. Many times, I haven’t made the right decisions, but I am trying.
I thank God that there will be time to relax and reflect, even as a squad. We have a four day “final debrief”, where we get to relax, have fun, and remember the year together. But that’s June 5th, and that hasn’t happened yet. Jesus is now resting forever (Hebrews 4), but I am still somewhere on Calvary road. If you are willing, please pray that I will have the strength to “fight the good fight” and, since there has to be a cliché in here somewhere, “finish the race” (2 Timothy 4:7)!
