“Finish Well”

Think a minute...Watching the Olympics can be both inspiring and heartbreaking. It’s easy to get caught up with “the thrill of victory” as well as “the agony of defeat.” This is especially true when the world’s greatest athletes, who have worked so hard their entire lives, lose by only a fraction of a second!

Even with all their years of daily discipline and training, they still must finish well! Almost winning doesn’t count. No one is remembered and rewarded for what they almost did.

In the 2008 Beijing Olympics, both the U.S. men’s and women’s 400 meter relay teams learned this the hard way. They ran well for most of the race, but then right near the end they dropped the baton. One of them, Tyson Gay, who was the 2007 world champion in both the 200 and 100 meter dashes, left the Olympics empty-handed with not even a single medal. He can tell you about the agony of not finishing well!

In 2003, after 22 years of exploration, the Space Shuttle Columbia went on its 28th mission, this time with 7 astronauts on board. They were on a 16-day journey into space to conduct important experiments. Everything went well and they achieved their goals, so they were returning to earth from their successful mission.   

Then when they were just 16 minutes from landing, suddenly the Space Shuttle Columbia exploded! Only tiny pieces were left of what was one of the most sophisticated machines and masterpieces of engineering in history. But the far greater tragedy was the sudden loss of those 7 brave and brilliant astronauts. They came so close—only 16 minutes from home—but they didn’t make it.

It’s not how you start, but how you finish that determines everything. In the most important matters of life and death, right and wrong, ‘almost’ doesn’t count. You have to finish well. If you let yourself be distracted or detoured, even just a little, it can end up destroying you!

So won’t you ask Jesus right now to take control of your heart and way of living every day, for the rest of your life? He guarantees that if you truly live His way every day, with His help and power you can be sure you will live well and finish well. Just think a minute…

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