FINISHING WELL
Dr. J. Robert Clinton, professor at Fuller Seminary, did a study of male leadership in the Bible and determined that only 30% of them finished well. Wow! The odds are against us! Consider also this next example.
The World Cup is over. Italy beat France in a shootout, 5-3, in the finals on Sunday. All over the world millions of people watched, drawn to the biggest sporting event of the year. This was the final match for France’s Zinedine Zidane, the captain and star of the losing team. In the heat of the second overtime, Zidane head-butted Italian defender Marco Materazzi, knocking him to the ground. When the officials saw the replay they promptly "red-carded" Zidane, ejecting him from the rest of the match. The millions watching also saw the foul and drew their own conclusions about Zidane. One emotional, senseless, spontaneous act tainted a brilliant career.
I never knew anything about Zindane until that moment. I never saw his brilliant career or his superstar efforts; I saw that act, vicious as it was, and thought, "What a loser."
(From a sermon by Dean Morgan, "Finish Well" 1/21/2009)