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I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful (2 Timothy 4:7, NLT).
Last week I celebrated my 73rd birthday.
It was an unusual time of introspection for me as I’ve just blown through my 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, and the first years of my 70s, believing I had decades left. However, last week I contemplated for the first time that while I’m healthy, active, and full of wisdom (at least I think so), I don’t have decades left.
This realization didn’t put me into a tailspin of introspective anxiety, instead it created anticipation that God isn’t finished with me yet. I’m looking forward to what He does in the years ahead of me.
I want to finish well, and there is no better verse on ending well than Paul’s summation of his life in 2 Timothy 4:7.
Paul teaches us three things: first, in the Greek, the word translated “fight” can also be translated as “agony” or “struggle,” helping us realize that trying to end our lives in retirement bliss isn’t God’s will.
Second, the Greek word translated “finished” means “completed according to purpose,” indicating that as long as we breathe, God has a purpose for us.
And thirdly, the biblical context of “faith” means “risk,” implying we can’t end by thinking we are too old to take steps of risk/faith for the Kingdom.
Being a cyclist, my dream of finishing well.
But aging does change the kinds of agony, purpose, and risk we can take, so I journaled three patterns in my life that, according to Paul’s exhortation in 2 Timothy 4:7, will allow me to finish well.
Wait
Most of my life, I initiated and built ministries with the idea that I had years left to complete the task. Now I’m waiting for God to open the doors, and when He does, I consider a one-to-three-year approach of obedience. I didn’t realize how busy God would keep me when I made this plan. Many people now call, text, and email me each week to ask about my expertise in one-to-one discipling.
I should have learned “waiting” earlier in life, as I spent years promoting, social mediaizing, and advertising. Now God’s doing all of that for me. Praise Him!
Dreams
In the first sermon to the church, the Apostle Peter says that in the last days, old men will dream dreams (Acts 2:17b). I now qualify as an “old man,” and I’ve been having dreams lately. Some good, some bad, and some from too much pizza for dinner, but I’m also learning to discern the difference.
A godly dream starts with peace and daily turning things over to God. If not, dreams will be anxiety-based. Being right with God means He is right with me in my dreams. Recently, I had an amazing dream about a local church and the incredible things God will do in it over the next few years.
With these dreams, I’m hesitant to share them and just pray for their fulfillment.
Crucial Disciplines
We can’t finish well without daily Bible, prayer and meditation, and physical exercise. All provide the energy (in different ways) for the strength needed for end-of-life service to God. Too many once-hardy saints later have difficulty because they lack these disciplines.
Those are my thoughts, now a final statement from the Apostle Paul…
The prize awaits me—the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on the day of his return (2 Timothy 4:8a).