Brad Morris: It's how you finish the race that matters in life
Last Updated on 3/19/2010
Published on 4/2/2009
By Dr. Brad Morris
We have all heard the adage that "It is not how you begin, but rather how you end." In a long foot race the runners must pace themselves at the beginning of the race, while they are still fresh, for if they do not they will use up all their energy at the beginning and having nothing left for the end of the race. They have plenty of energy and stamina at the beginning but they have to hold themselves back in order to be able to finish.
We all have our preconceived ideas about what a good beginning to any project or endeavor should be like. We also have our strong feelings about how a project or endeavor should end. For years, the opening of "The Wide World of Sports" television program illustrated "the agony of defeat" with a painful ending to an attempted ski jump. The skier appeared in good form as he headed down the jump, but then, for no apparent reason, he tumbled head over heels off the side of the jump, bouncing off the supporting structure.
Most of us watched that in amazement as the man went over the side of the ski jump, and tumbled and bounced forever. How could such an athlete begin with such good form and end up so tragically? What ever happened to all his years of training? What was he thinking about? Did he loose his concentration? For we all knew that he was not a novice. He should have had everything under control coming down that jump. If he would have fallen it should have been on his landing, not coming down the jump itself. Maybe he lost his nerve? We never knew.
What we viewers didn't know was that he chose to fall rather than finish the jump. Why? As he explained later, the jump surface had become too fast, and midway down the ramp, he realized if he completed the jump, he would land on the level ground, beyond the safe sloping landing area, which could have been fatal. As it was, the skier suffered no more than a headache from the tumble.
It was because this skier was no novice that he recognized the danger he was in and fell intentionally off the side of the ski jump. He had the experience to know that the conditions were not right for a successful jump. Normally in a ski jump competition the longer the jump the better. But this skier recognized that though he could make a very long jump, it would not end well. He knew that he would go far beyond the safe landing zone. What good is a beautiful, extremely long jump, with perfect form, if when you land at the end of it you died?
No points scored for the length of that jump would ever offset the fact that the skier could very well die upon his landing at the end of the jump. He was smart enough to recognize the problem and to find the solution to it before it was too late.
To the uninitiated, it looked as if he made a fatal mistake that somehow caused him to fall, instead of continuing on in their eyes and making a perfect jump. To the skier it was not how he looked as he tumbled off the ramp and ended that jump that mattered.
No, what mattered to that experienced athlete was the fact that he had survived to make another jump on another day.
How many times do we plough headlong into an endeavor, more worried about form and what people will think or say, when we should be worried about finishing to the best of our ability and for our own good. 2 Timothy 4:7 says it this way, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."
Live your life to the best of your ability, love God, and follow Him. These are the things that will bring us our ultimate joy in this life and the life to come.
Remember, "It's not how you begin, but rather how you end."
To change one's course in life can be a dramatic, emotionally gut wrenching and sometimes a very painful undertaking, but if that purposeful change, painful though it may be, leads to a happier, more fulfilling and better life, then making that change is healthier than a fatal landing at the end.
