July 6, 2003
A Strong Finish

A West Virginia man came down from the hills with his family to the big city of Morgantown, and there he entered the first three-story building he had ever seen. He and his son just walked around the lobby taking in the sights when he noticed an old grizzled heavy-set lady walk over to a door and push a button. The door opened, she walked in and the door closed. A minute later the door opened again, out stepped a young curvey blonde woman, and the old Mountaineer at first couldn’t believe his eyes. Then he turned to his son and said “Boy, go fetch your ma.”

We all would like a little magic in our life to change our circumstances as we get older, wouldn’t we? Maybe we don’t necessarily want to change our spouse or the way he looks, but we wouldn’t mind a miracle or two to make things easier to bear. Unfortunately, those kinds of miracles are normally in short supply. The trick is to accept life as it comes, and run our race faithfully, right to the finish line.

Do any of you follow pro basketball? Then can you tell me who David Robinson is? If you don’t follow pro basketball, let me tell you about David Robinson. He just retired after 14 seasons in pro basketball, and his team, the San Antonio Spurs, defeated the New Jersey Nets last month for the championship of the NBA.

People said how great this was, that Robinson should retire at the top of his game, as a world champion. But why should you care? They called David Robinson the Admiral because he graduated from the Naval Academy, and when he entered college he was just at the Navy’s maximum height of six foot six, but then his body had a late growth spurt so that by the time he graduated he had reached the height of seven feet, one inch, which made him a superstar in the world of basketball.

Robinson enjoyed immediate success when he entered the NBA, and enjoyed the money that comes to pro superstars these days, but after several years in the league he began to feel that something was missing. He accepted Jesus Christ as his lord and savior, and ever since then he has lived the Christian life in a culture that stresses anything but Christian values.

Robinson and his wife took some of their millions of dollars and founded a private school in San Antonio that teaches those Christian values. Not a measly couple scholarships, they funded the whole school. That’s the kind of life he leads, and why it was great to see him go out on top, with a strong finish. As so often happens in life, when one is faithful to God, he is faithful to crown our efforts with success. Let’s look at a couple Bible passages that support this idea.

The first comes from the Book of Joshua. Moses has just died, and Joshua is receiving instruction from God about how to lead the Hebrew people.

God said to Joshua, “Be sure that you obey the whole law that my servant Moses gave you. Be sure that the book of the law is always read in your worship. Study it day and night, and make sure that you obey everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.”

The Book of Proverbs tells us, “Always obey the Lord, and you will be happy. But if you are stubborn, you will be ruined. It is dangerous to be concerned with what others think of you, but if you trust the Lord, you will be safe.”

Finally, let’s look at the First Book of Kings, which opens with the last days of King David, a man who had started his career strong, by defeating the giant Goliath, but had made many mistakes along the way, the biggest of which was falling in love with Bathsheba and arranging for the murder of her husband Uriah so that she could marry the king. But David confessed his sin and was forgiven and now it was time to turn over the kingdom to Solomon, his son with Bathsheba. His last words to Solomon were “Be confident and determined, and do what the Lord your God orders you to do. Obey all his laws and commands, as written in the Law of Moses, so that wherever you go you may prosper in everything you do.”

David was a strong finisher. So was David Robinson. Do you know what I mean by a strong finisher? In running, the race is not necessarily to the swiftest, but to the one with the best finishing kick. When I was a boy, Jim Ryan of Kansas was the outstanding runner in the country, just a teenager, who had lowered the world record time in the mile several times. He was a winner because of his outstanding kick, what he saved for the finish of the race.

So often in life people run the race and they run strong early on, when things are going well, when they’re young and strong. But let them see some adversity along the way, some setbacks, some disappointments, and suddenly they’re not running as hard. Their wind is gone, their feet hurt, they’ve got nothing left for the final leg of the race. But the winner is the strong finisher.

And Hazel Leighty was a strong finisher. As you can imagine, Hazel has been much on my mind this week, as she passed from this life, a life which had become an increasingly painful and confusing place to her, and entered into the beautiful land which is our birthright, our promise from God. The more I thought about Hazel, the more I thought about that idea of being a strong finisher in the race, and as sometimes happens I made a midcourse correction in today’s sermon. I want to talk about what this means to be a strong finisher in life.

Just last Saturday Joanne, Nanetta and I were out to visit Hazel and take her communion, and I’m so glad in retrospect that we did that, but it was obvious that she was slipping badly and her time would soon be up. In truth Hazel had her bags packed for some time, and while one part of me rooted for her to reach her 100^th birthday, another part of me longed for her suffering to be at an end.

Many of us, myself included, said “What a shame that Hazel couldn’t have died in her home, instead of going to a nursing home for a month,” but let me tell you something—there are few things we can be absolutely certain of, but I’m certain that when she passed away Jesus was there to welcome Hazel to her new pain-free life and say, “My dear friend Hazel has come home.” Yes, her death was a blessing.

Yet it was a blessing tinged with sadness for me and for all those who knew her, for Hazel, even in the midst of her pain, was a blessing to all who knew her. When I got into ministry I was told that there were certain people that you might call on who would give you much more than you could give them, and that certainly was the case with Hazel, always cheerful and positive. If I felt down at all, a visit with Hazel would be enough to get my attitude turned around. And that leads to the first point I want to make about being a strong finisher: You have to cling to a positive attitude. Sometimes you have to fight through the negatives in your life to do that, and I think that’s what Paul was saying when he said “I have fought the good fight.”

Paul certainly had more than his share of troubles, but he always kept his boat pointed forward. At the very end of the Acts of the Apostles, with Paul in chains in Rome, having just survived a shipwreck, we see him continuing to preach and teach, continuing to stay positive, continuing to fight the good night. I don’t know anybody whose troubles match, much less surpass, Paul’s afflictions, so it stands to reason that we can keep going, too. We don’t have to give in to anger or bitterness, no matter what has come before. By grace, we can triumph and claim our victory wreath, too.

Paul also said that I have run the race, and I will always remember Hazel still coming to church at age 99, sitting down in the front pew so she could hear well, and smiling up at me. Whether the sermon was any good or not, Hazel would always give me that smile and say “Oh, the sermon was wonderful.” How do you think that made me feel? That kind of smile was enough fuel to keep me going for another week or a month or a year. But do you think it was easy for Hazel to be faithful to come in to church? She always felt bad when she couldn’t make it. When you run the race to the finish, you don’t let your circumstances keep you from being a positive influence on others.

Lastly Paul said I have kept the faith, and here he’s talking about not only taking the faith into your own life and living it, he’s talking about passing it on to the next generation, passing the torch to the next leg of the relay. Each one of us needs to ask ourselves, what are we doing to pass on the faith intentionally to the next generation? This is truly what it means to keep the faith, to take it into our own lives, and pass it on to others. Hazel was able to say when she met the Lord that she had done both, as a teacher, as a church member and just as a daughter of God.

When she went out to Eicher’s I noticed two and only two personal possessions in her room: one was the teddy bear she had received for her 100^th birthday, and the other was her Bible. Last Saturday I asked whether she was reading her Bible every day, as was her practice at home, and she assured me that she was. So I added, “Maybe the next time I come visit I could read some scripture to you,” and she gave me that big smile and said “That would be wonderful.” That was my only regret, that I never got to go back and read to her.

Paul writes about death as if he were sailing to a distant land, as he indeed was about to set sail for Rome. Elsewhere in the New Testament death is referred to as sleep, or as a closer fellowship with Christ, but in II Timothy Paul also writes about death as the day he will claim his prize, his crown for being faithful, and I have every belief that’s what Hazel claimed last Monday. Paul goes on to assert that all those who are faithful all those who wait in love for Christ to reappear, will receive the same prize that he claims—the crown that marks death as a victory, not a tragedy.

This is our goal, to bear up throughout life, whatever our circumstances, whatever our age or infirmity, so that when we reach the finish, we can claim the crown of victory which is promised to all those who wait in love for Christ to appear.

Age is a funny thing, is it not? When we are very small we like to get older. When we’re less than 10 years old we get so excited about getting older that we like to add fractions to our age, as in “I’m eight and a half.” You‘re never 36 and a half, but you can be eight and a half, going on nine. Then you get into your teens, and there’s no holding you back. You look forward to that magical number, 16. Oh, man, sweet sixteen. The driver’s license awaits. Some kids, asked how old they are, will say, “I’m going to be 16.” They might be 13 at the time, but they’re GOING to be 16.

And then comes the greatest day of your life—the day you become 21. Even the words sound magical. You become 21. But then only a few years later, and it starts getting a little weird. Nine years later you turn 30. Sounds like sour milk, doesn’t it? He turned 30, so we had to throw him out. There’s no fun anymore, now you’re just a used car part. And our culture doesn’t help any, with its obsession with youth. Advertisers are after that prized 18-34 demographic, and once you’re past that no one gives two hoots what you think.

Before you know it you’re pushing 40, and you start to holler “Whoa! Put on the brakes!” At 50 you’re huffing and puffing, your hair and your dreams gone. But wait. You reach 60, an age you never thought you’d make when you were young, and by now the years are going by so fast and you’ve built up so much speed that you hit 70. And it hurts to hit that number. But then a funny thing happens. You start to age backwards. By the time you get in your 80s life becomes a daily cycle. You hit lunch. You turn 4:30. You reach bedtime.

By the time you’re in your 90s it’s as if you were a small child again. “I just turned 92.” “I’ll be 95.” And then God willing, you make it to 100, you’re back to fractions: “I’m 100 and a half.” Dear Hazel basically made it to 100 and a quarter, but in many ways she was forever young. She was a strong finisher. May we all have that same kick as we run our own race all the way to the winner’s circle.

To close this morning I’d like to share something that my friend Helen Auman e-mailed me some time ago. It’s called 10 ways to stay young:

1—Throw out nonessential numbers. These include your age, weight, height, cholesterol count, whatever. Let your doctor worry about these things. That’s what you pay him for.

2—Keep only your cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.

3—Keep learning something new every day. Learn about the computer, or gardening, or crafts, whatever, but learn something new every day. Remember, the idle brain is the Devil’s workshop, and the devil’s name is Alzheimer’s.

4—Enjoy the simple things, a sunset, music, your favorite foods.

5—Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you’re gasping for breath.

6—Tears happen. When they come, endure, grieve, and move on. The only person who is with us all of our lives is ourself. Be alive while you’re alive.

7—Surround yourself with what you love, whether it’s family, pets, keepsakes, music, photos, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.

8—Cherish your health. If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can control, get help.

9—Don’t take guilt trips. The past is past. Take a trip to the mall, or to the next county, or to a foreign country, but don’t go on a guilt trip—and don’t send anybody else on one, either.

10—Tell the people you love that you love them, every chance you get. Remember, life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.

And I would throw in one for good measure, one that helped keep Hazel young—believe in God’s promise that we are not left alone and lonely. Jesus promised, “I will come back to you, and because I live, you also will live. My father will love whoever loves me, and I too will love them and reveal myself to them.” May we all be like David Robinson. May we all be like King David. May we all be like the Apostle Paul. May we all be like Hazel Leighty. May we win the race with a strong finish. Amen.