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“Hours behind the runner in front of him that last marathoner finally entered the Olympic stadium. By that time, the drama of the day’s events was almost over. Most of the spectators had gone home. Limping into the arena, the Tanzanian runner grimaced with every step. His knee bleeding and bandaged from an earlier fall. His ragged appearance immediately caught the attention of the remaining crowd who cheered him onto the finish line.
Why did he stay in the race? What made him endure his injuries to the end? When asked that later he replied, “My country did not send me 7,000 miles away to start the race, they sent me 7,000 miles to finish it. I’m Mark Evans, pastor of the Church of Rock Creek. You know, you got to remember that how you start isn’t what counts, what matters is how you finish. You know, what does it take to knock you out of the race? As uncomfortable as that question might be, it’s a good one to ask ourselves. How many unfinished project do you have hanging over you head right now, without really any plan to finish them?
The world is full of people who start things and they never can complete them. It might be something big like a college degree or something… like a little project around the house. Some people, frankly, tend to thrive in an atmosphere like that, but for most of us, every time we think of what we haven’t finished it just yells failure to us. The wise person, though, begins a task with the end in mind. You know, think about this, any goal worth pursuing in the first place is a goal worth achieving so finish what you start. It’ll help you move toward the pathway to actually win at life.”
