Original Entry:
January 15, 2012
McMinnville, OR
“What are those feeble Jews doing? Will they restore their wall? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Can they bring the stones back to life from
those heaps of rubble-burned as they are?” Nehemiah 4:2
Finishing strong is
the fifth and final characteristic of manhood.
Finishing strong is a lost art among men who give up on marriages half
of the time, is transient with careers, and believes the lie that retirement is
synonymous to finishing.
Completion is not
finishing either. Simply staying in a
horrible marriage without fighting to make it thrive is not finishing. It is
laziness. Similarly, being alive is not
the same as living. Hanging on in life is not God’s agenda for man, and
certainly earning a retirement check is not the goal. The goal of a man is not getting to the end
but a finishing strong.
A marriage should
grow stronger over time. A man must grow
closer to his God as he ages. He must
get better at his job, closer to his friends, and stronger in his resolve to
end his life well. Play the movie of your life and stop looking at the next
play. Boys can start strong but it takes
a man to finish well.
In Nehemiah we see
the Jewish adversaries openly mocking construction in Jerusalem. In his attempt at discouraging the Jews
Sanballat said, “Will they finish in a
day?” Men who finish strong work at it today, everyday to the bitter
end. They see the task, count the cost,
and finish strong.
See today’s task.
Count today’s cost.
Finish today strong.
