Finishing Well
by Jill Briscoe
The spiritual art of tenacity is a learned art. You cannot learn it unless you have something to be tenacious about, something to care deeply about—being a Christian, for example. We learn to be persistent, or tenacious, when we have to press on through life’s difficulties. Daily challenges and struggles in the Christian life and the experience of being mistreated because of a profession of faith in Christ are examples of opportunities to develop tenacity. The word “tenacious” can be defined as “holding fast,” “being tough,” “being persistent or stubborn,” “clinging or adhering to something.” In a word, stickability. Sticking with someone or something to the end—like sticking with Christ and his call to us to follow him.

Paul is a perfect example of stickability. He uses the image of a footrace to make his point. As far as Paul was concerned, his race wasn’t complete until he reached the finish line—that is, until death came calling. He was not about to quit, no matter what happened to him. Paul was able to say at the end of his life, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day” (2 Timothy 4:7–8).

Pressing on and finishing things are virtues lacking in our culture. My husband says that Western culture militates against discipleship. I think I know what he means. Hardly anybody finishes anything anymore. The kids are signed up for a YMCA class. If they don’t want to get out of bed one Saturday morning, they don’t go to class. Perhaps we ourselves are in an exercise regime or have started yet another diet. How long does it last? Even if we’ve paid the fee for the club or bought the prepackaged food for the diet, how well do we finish what we start?

It can be the same with our spiritual disciplines—reading the Bible, attending a study, beginning one more season of prayer. We drop out when the class is halfway through or when the book we’re reading begins to bore us. We don’t finish. Finishing is an art. It takes discipline to persist. The famous nineteenth-century preacher Charles Spurgeon said, “By perseverance the snail reached the ark.”

Stuart and I frequently teach at pastors’ conferences. We have discovered that, no matter what you do, people leave before the official end. You can make the conference shorter, but it makes no difference. On the last day, attendance inevitably shrinks. Even if the conference is just a one-day event, people will leave before the last session. What’s behind this behavior?

The same thing often happens when we come to faith matters. Even if we run well for a few years, we then slow to a near stop or run off the track altogether and retire from the race. This is the case especially as we grow older. We just get tired—tired of serving, tired of attending two worship ser vices a week, tired of arriving on time or staying until the benediction.

There seems to be an increasing spiritual fatigue among us. There is a difference between being tired in the work of the Lord and tired of the work of the Lord. When we get tired of the work of the Lord, we are in danger of quitting the race altogether. We will probably be tired in it as long as there aren’t enough hands to share the load. But as Paul said, “Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16).

Listen to Paul: “If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me” (Philippians 1:22). Although he was bone weary, he was as young in spirit and passion as when he first met the living Christ. He was an old man with a young heart. Dynamic and fruitful labor went hand in hand for Paul. He was tenacious, and he persisted—he preached and taught, exhorted and encouraged, rebuked and challenged. He traveled and visited and never gave up building the church until his last breath. In a nutshell, he finished!

The danger is that the older we get, the more ready we are to quit. We may well retire from our jobs, but there is no spiritual retirement for the disciple of Jesus. How could there be? Here is Paul, the aged one, pressing on. He is certainly old and worn, tired and sick, but he is strong in his determination to die with his boots on. Persistent and stubborn, he’s sitting in a horrible place, having had his freedom taken away for no other reason than that he is a follower of Christ. But just listen to him: “I keep working toward that day when I finally will be all that Christ Jesus saved me for and wants me to be” (Philippians 3:14, my translation). “I’m pressing on,” declares Paul. In other words, “I am practicing the spiritual art of tenacity.”

From Spiritual Arts: Mastering the Disciplines for a Rich Spiritual Life by Jill Briscoe