finishing well

In his State of the Union address, President Bush said, "“Before history is written down in books, it is written in courage. Like Americans before us, we will show that courage and we will finish well.”

Besides being a patriotic call to courage, this also has meaning for the Christian.

"We will show that courage and we will finish well."

I find two significant points in this sentence. First, to show courage is to have something hard to do. "Do Hard Things" is The Rebelution's slogan. We must have courage to do hard things. It isn't easy to lead a Christian life. The world constantly tries to break down our defenses and tempt us down the wrong path.

Second, we must finish our race well. Hebrews 12:1, "Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking onto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith."

The apostle Paul said in 2 Timothy 4:7, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."

We must strive to "finish well," so that when we have finished the race we will hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant."