Finish Well

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

(2 Timothy 4:7 NIV)

A few years ago, I was privilleged to visit Casa Loma, Toronto’s majestic castle. It took 3 years and 300 men to build this 98 room mansion. Sadly, Sir Henry Pellatt and his wife, Lady Mary Pellatt, the owners of this beautiful mansion, did not enjoy it for long. They had to leave their beloved home ten years later due to financial difficulties. A not so happy tale after all.

But Henry Pellatt isn’t the only man whose big dream went down the drain. In the Bible, King Solomon who also built his own palace, which took 13 years to build (1 Kings 7:1), didn’t get to enjoy it for long because he disobeyed God by marrying foreign wives who led him to worship their pagan gods. And the Temple of God, which took Solomon 7 years to build (1 Kings 6:38), didn’t last long either because the Israelites disobeyed God, so He allowed the Babylonians to destroy it. The Scriptures are filled with stories of men and women who had a happy start in life but not a good finish.

Most of us today would say that we didn’t even have a good start in life to begin with. The good news is, we can still have a good finish. The Apostle Paul certainly did. The man who was once zealous to persecute Christians became an ambassador for Christ. And it is he who encourages us in today’s passage to fight the good fight, finish the race and keep the faith (2 Timothy 4:7). Let’s aim for a good finish!