Finish Strong
1 Corinthians 9:24-27
Warren Buffett said, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.” Have you ever noticed in life that a good start isn’t always enough? Now there is nothing wrong with a good start mind you, but it is often not enough to get us to the finish line, or to the winners circle.??And if you don’t believe me, ask the Atlanta Braves who won the first 2 games of the 1996 years world series against the Yankees in New York and then lost the series 4 games later.?Or you can ask the 1969 Baltimore Orioles, who dominated the majors that year winning 109 games but lost the World Series to the New York Mets in just 4 games. Or ask the Indianapolis Colts who went up 10-0 at the end of the first quarter of the Super Bowl only to lose the game 31-17. It’s not just the teams, it’s also the athletes: Then you have Tiger Woods, Mark McGuire, Sammy Sosa, Roger Clemens, Jose Conseco.
Good starts aren’t limited to professional sports or even athlete’s. It also includes politicians: President Bill Clinton, Senators John Edwards and Bill Jefferson, New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer and Governor Edwin Edwards, Oliver Thomas, Dorthy May Taylor, all of who had good starts but failed to finish strong. You have businessmen like Ken Lay of Enron, Bernie Madoff, and Bernard Ebbers and Scott Sullivan of World Com. It also includes many pastors and ministers including: Jamaican born, New York based evangelist Rev. Paul Lewis, Marvin Gorman, Jimmy Swaggert, Jim Bakker, and many of the arch bishops and priests who have been accused of molestation or conspiring to cover it up. There is nothing wrong with a good start mind you, but it is often not enough to get us to the finish line. The bible is full of stories of men & women who had great starts for God - but who did not finish strong. King David, King Solomon, King Asa, Samson, Judas and many others. Dr. J. Robert Clinton, professor at Fuller Seminary, did a study of leadership in the Bible and determined that only 30% of them finished well.
It’s easy to look down on people like that we all have experienced the reality of good starts but failing to finish strong in our own everyday lives.? It may be a new diet or exercise program or on a project around the house, a class in school, a job in the church or in paying off some bills. We get out of that starting gate like hungry grey hounds chasing a rabbit but as time passes and the diet ends, the exercise stops, we fail the class, the job doesn’t get done and the bills are still where we left them. And we find out that there is nothing wrong with a good start -- it just isn’t enough. Trophies are given only to those who cross the finish line. There are no medals for 95 yard dashes.
Perhaps there was no one more focused on finishing the race of life and faith well than the Apostle Paul. In our Scripture today, Paul uses the analogy of a race for the journey of faith. The Church in Corinth was familiar with races. Corinth hosted one of the most famous of the Greek athletic events, 2nd only to the Olympic games.?Paul uses the picture of a race to point to another race - for we as Christians are running a race where we are called not just to start strong but finish well. There are several things we learn about the journey of faith.
First, we run with a purpose, not aimlessly. Very few New Orleaneans running in the Crescent City Classic have a realistic chance to compete and beat some of the best African runners in the world who come here to race but every one of the participants has a goal. For some, it is to win their age bracket. For others, it is to be in the first 100. For still others, it is to be in the top 500 and get a poster. But for every person, regardless of age, stature, training or physical shape, the goal is the same: to finish the race and finish it well. Finishing well can be a matter of perspective and personal taste. (Show funny pictures of costumes from the race) The same is true for those of us who run the race of faith for Jesus. It’s not enough just to start the race or even have a good start, it is to finish the race and finish it well.
Second, it requires a proper focus and that’s to run for the prize. Now here’s the thing about the CCC. Only one man and one woman will win but for the first 500, they receive a medallion and a poster and that’s the prize. People run in the race of life for fame or prizes or accolades, but we run for the prize of eternal life. And that makes all the difference on how you run the race. Rick Warren writes, “When you fully comprehend that there is more to life than just here and now, and you realize that life is just preparation for eternity, you will begin to live differently. You will start living in light of eternity, and that will color how you handle every relationship, task, and circumstance. Suddenly many activities, goals, and even problems that seemed so important will appear trivial, petty, and unworthy of your attention. The closer you live to God, the smaller everything else appears. When you live in the light of eternity, your values change. You use your time and money more wisely. You place a higher premium on relationships and character instead of fame or wealth or achievements or even fun. Your priorities are reordered. Keeping up with trends, fashions, and popular values just doesn’t matter as much anymore.”
Third, it involves discipline and strict training. This is serious business for everyone who competes goes into strict training. Just as you and I would never seek to run the Crescent City Classic without months of training which is laid out in the Time-Picayune for all to follow, so too you cannot run the race of life and finish strong without continual training. In the next few weeks, we’re going to learn the training habits you need to finish strong.
Fourth, it’s not about winning the race, it’s about how you run the race. Brian Davis rolled in a clutch 18-footer for birdie on his final regulation hole to catch Jim Furyk and force a playoff in the Verizon Heritage Golf Tournament in Hilton Head, SC. On the first playoff hole Davis’ hit a wayward 7-iron that hit the left edge of the green, rattled off the rocks bounding the ocean and settled among some grass, twigs and reeds. When he swung, he couldn’t deny what he saw in the corner of his eye. He ticked a loose reed during his backswing, a violation of the rules of golf, and called a two-stroke penalty on himself that gave Jim Furyk the victory. Davis immediately asked for PGA Tour tournament director Slugger White to make a ruling. White consulted with officials who checked TV replays and confirmed Davis’ worst fear: He had indeed violated the rules, hitting a reed on his backswing. It was indiscernable to the eye but clearly seen in the slow mo replay. Jim Furyk earned $1,026,000 million. Davis earned $615,000, losing $411,000 and his chance to win his first tournament. PGA Tour tournament director Slugger White said, What Davis lost on the course will be regained in his reputation for his honorable act. “That will come back to him…tenfold.” It’s not that you win the race or golf tournament which matters, it’s how you run the race and play the game. Because for us as followers of Jesus Christ, it’s not about a trophy or even financial winnings, it’s about eternity.
Paul put it this way, I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things….(So) let us live up to what we have already attained.” Phil 3:12-14
Lastly, it’s about finishing strong. John Baker was too short and too slight to be a runner for his high school track team but he loved to run. His best friend was tall and lanky and had the perfect build to be a runner but wanted nothing to do with the sport. So John went to the track coach to convince him to let John on the team under the premise that his best friend would follow. John Baker became a runner. The team’s first race was a 1.7 mile cross country run through the hills of Alberquerque. The reigning state champ Lloyd Goff was running the race and so all eyes were on him. Lloyd led the pack as they disappeared over the hills. The spectators waited and then they saw a lone silhouette of a figure running toward them and assumed it was Lloyd Goff. Instead it was John Baker who blew away the field of runners and set a new meet record. When asked how he was able to win, John said he asked himself a simple question, “Am I doing my best?” Still unsure if he was, he fixed his eyes on the runner ahead of him until he passed him and then the next and the next until there was no one left. He committed that nothing was going to distract from giving his best- not pain, fatigue or anything.
As the season progressed John proved that the first race was no fluke. The fun loving teenager became a fierce and relentless competitor who refused to lose. By his junior year, John had broken six meet records and was considered the best miler in the state. His senior season he ran track and cross country, winning state in both. John entered the University of New Mexico in 1962 and he took his training to the next level running 10 miles a day. In 1965, John and his track team faced the most feared team in the country, the USC Trojans. When John’s race came, he purposely led the pack the first lap and then intentionally fell back to fourth. On the turn of the third lap, John collided with another runner vying for position and stumbled, losing valuable time. When he hit the last lap, John dug deep and lived up to his reputation, blowing past the leader to win by 3 seconds.
After graduating, John turned his sights to the 1972 Olympics. In order to have time to train and make a living, he took a job as a track coach at Aspen Elementary in Albuquerque where he had the opportunity to do what he had always wanted- work with kids. Within a few months, he became known as the coach who cared as he invested a great deal of time and effort in working with the kids individually. Not critical but always demanding the best, the kids responded and learned from John.
In May of 1969 just before his 25th birthday, John noticed he was tiring prematurely in his workouts. Two weeks later, he developed chest pains and then awoke one morning with a swollen groin. A doctor’s visit revealed that John had an advanced form of testicular cancer. The only chance was to undergo surgery which revealed the worst, that the cancer had spread. The doctors gave him six months to live and a second surgery was required.
Just before the second operation, John drove to the mountains and intended to end his life by driving off a cliff. He didn’t want his family to have to endure his pain and suffering. But just before he did, he recalled the faces of his students and wondered if they would think that this was the best he could do. That was not the legacy he wanted to live behind. At that moment, he dedicated his life to his kids and decided to give his very best effort in the days which lay ahead. After a summer of surgery and treatments, he returned to school and started a program for handicapped kids to be the equipment managers and coach’s timekeeper. Everyone that wanted to was included. John created a whole list of awards for students he felt deserved recognition, using his own trophies by re-plating them and purchasing fabric with his own money and created blue ribbons at night to give as rewards. All the while John refused pain medication because he feared it would impair his ability to work with the kids. John was asked to work with a small track club called the Duke City Dashers. Several months later, they were a team to contend with. John predicted they would make it to the AAU Finals.
By now John was undergoing chemo and he struggled to keep any food down, his health deteriorated and it became increasingly difficult to make it to practices. Then one day, one of the runners came to John to share the good news: they were going to make it to the AAU Finals. John’s last wish was to be there for it. Unfortunately, it was not to be. A few weeks later on Thanksgiving Day at the age of 26, John died- 18 months after his first doctor’s visit. He had beaten the odds. Two days later, the Duke City Dashers won the AAU Championship.
A few days after his funeral, students at Aspen Elementary began calling their school, John Baker. A movement began and a name change request was sent to the school board. 520 families in the District voted unanimously for the name change. Today John Baker Elementary stands as a testimony to a courageous young man who believed in giving his best effort right down to the very end.
Five years before he was diagnosed with cancer, John wrote this poem:
Many thoughts race through my mind
As I step up to the starting line
Butterflies thru my stomach fly
As I free that last deep sigh
I feel that death is drawing near
But the end of the race I do not fear
For when the string comes across my breast
I know it’s time for eternal rest
The gun goes off, the race is run
Only God knows if I’ve won
My family and friends and many more
Can’t understand what it is was for
But this race to death is a final test
And I am not afraid, for I’ve done my very best
