You Win at the Finish Line

Danny’s nickname was "The Stormtrooper." When he moved into a situation he took it over. When he changed schools everyone within the sound of his voice heard how much better things could be done if they would follow his suggestions, or better, just let him run things. He took people and things "by storm."

But Danny was all show and no "do." He made a tremendous impression at the starting line, but when the race was over, so to speak, Danny was nowhere to be seen. He was a starter who never finished the things he started.

The fellow who gets out in front at the first is not necessarily the one who wins the race. Neither does the fellow who gets all the breaks necessarily have to win either. Sometimes the winner is hidden from view for a while, then he comes forward because he has what it takes. Martin Luther translated the New Testament into German while he was a prisoner for his own protection. John Bunyan wrote "Pilgrim's Progress" in the now famous Bedford Jail. It was Bunyan who made the jail famous. Victor Hugo wrote his greatest works while he was an exile from his beloved France.

Don't worry about being a slow starter. A meteorite is traveling very fast when it hits the earth's atmosphere and then it burns up in a spectacular flash. If it weren't traveling so fast it wouldn't destroy itself.

The race is won at the finish line, whether it is a long
race or a dash. You will get credit for what you finish, and not for what you start to do and leave undone.

Help me to be as good a finisher as I am a starter, O God.