The Discipline of Finishing
Beginning, starting, and launching is in vogue today. New and improved is what sells, while principles of ending, finishing and completing are just an afterthought. When was the last time you thought about how you can finish something well? Wait, finish answering the question. Remember, if something is worth starting, then it is worth finishing.
Faithfulness is starting and finishing the race. Faithfulness is the defiant choice of “nevertheless.” Faithful people just don’t stop. There is a rhythm in their life that is evident to all. God constantly chastised Israel for their unfaithfulness. It just happened for them. Squirrel! And off they went.
The Hebrew word for faithfulness is “emunah,” conveys the idea of stability and steadiness. It is this stability that I like to refer to as a “bad case of the normals.” It should be abnormal to quit before you finish. It should be strange to commence but not complete.
For the Christ follower, faithfulness is acting on the truth that Christ beckons a man or woman to a “long obedience.” Faithfulness requires more than beliefs. Faithfulness requires stiff-spinned convictions. Mere beliefs can give way to compromise quickly, and compromise is corrosive to faithfulness.
Living a life that kicks a dent in eternity demands a person who is willing not only to stand up but to show up. Don’t be fooled by the simplicity. Faithfulness starts in the mind with a defiant “Nevertheless, I will show up.” The great theologian Woody Allen once said, “Half the battle is just showing up.” At its core, faithfulness starts with the decision to just show up.
Do you remember the parable of the soils that Jesus told in Matthew 13:20-21? Jesus said, “As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.”
What a timely reminder. Choosing what is fast does not always last. Growing deep roots requires the most precious commodity of life, and that is time. Faithfulness demands a tenacity of spirit that sees convictions as greater than conveniences. It is out of faithfulness that fruitfulness grows and flourishes.
You have 168 hours this next week. Will you choose faithfulness? Will you show up? Will you choose to not quit? Will you say “no” to quick fixes and speedy escape hatches? Consider all that God could do through you just by you choosing faithfulness this week. Choose a long obedience.
The next move is yours.
