Lynn Jones: The need to finish what you begin
By Lynn Jones
The basketball season is moving toward a climax as teams jockey for a place in the playoffs. As one who watches a lot of basketball, one of the things that I often hear in the season is the importance of finishing a play. Sometimes a player will take the ball toward the goal with a promising beginning, but he will not carry it strongly to the hoop. As a result of that, a defender may be able to come over and block the shot without committing a foul. The announcers will say, “He’s got to finish that play.
One of the highest compliments that can be paid a basketball player is to say of him, “He’s a good finisher.” It is a term used to describe a player who puts the ball into the hoop.
In the same way, one of the qualities of committed Christians is that they are good “finishers.” They finish what they start. They do not make promising beginnings only to drop out somewhere along the way.
In a basketball game, one of the least important statistics is the score at halftime. Nobody remembers that score. It is the final score that counts. You’ve got to be a good finisher. You’ve got to finish what you begin with Christ. Doing that often requires tenacity and dogged determination.
Ben Fisher used to tell a story about a mountain man who had had a hard winter up in the Cumberland Mountains. To make some money, he went down to a little community on the Cumberland River looking for a job. The only job that he could get was unloading a barge that was loaded with several dozen anvils for blacksmith shops. Each of the anvils weighed about 150 pounds. The young mountaineer agreed to unload the anvils for a dollar an hour.
The strong young man approached his job with enthusiasm. He marched up the gangplank onto the barge and picked up one of those 150-pound anvils in each hand. He turned, came walking off the barge, and, as he reached the middle of the gangplank, the plank broke, sending him crashing into the muddy river water. As he was thrashing around in the water, gulping for breath, he finally yelled, “Listen fellers, if somebody doesn’t help me, I’m going to have to let one of these things go.” You’ve got to admire a man who is committed to finishing the job he begins.
Near the end of his life, the apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith” (2 Tim. 4:7. One of the final words spoken by Jesus from the cross was a triumphant, “It is finished” (John 19:30).
Thank God for those in the Christian life with the commitment to finish what they begin. Are you a good “finisher?
Lynn Jones is a retired pastor who lives in Oxford. He does supply preaching for churches in his area and often serves as an interim pastor. Jones is also an author, has written two books and writes a weekly newspaper column. He may be contacted at: kljones45@yahoo.com.
