Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

We all know people who begin whatever they begin with a great burst of enthusiasm, but it doesn’t last.  When the obstacles come or the going gets tough, these people tend to throw in the towel and quit.  A few years back, an international expedition was organized to climb the North Wall of the Matterhorn, a feat never before accomplished.  Reporters interviewed the various members of the expedition who had come from all over the world.  A reporter asked one member of the group, “Are you going to climb the North Wall of the Matterhorn?”  The man replied, “I’m going to give it everything I have.”  Another reporter asked a second member, are you going to climb the Noth Wall of the Matterhorn?”  The climber answered, “I’m going to do the very best I can.”  Still another was asked if he was going to climb the North Wall of the Matterhorn?”  He said, Well, I’m going to give it a jolly good effort.”  Finally, a reporter asked a young American the same question.  The young American looked the reporter dead in the eye and said, “Yes, I will climb the North Wall of the Matterhorn” (Zig Ziglar,” See You at the Top,” pages 122,123).

As it turns out, only one person actually climbed the North Wall.  It was the man who said, “I will.”  When the going got tough, everybody else through in the towel and quit.

The apostle James says, “Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (James 1:4).  Another translation puts it this way, “See that you persevere to the end.”

So, we come to the theme of this article-the power to see it through.  Life’s poorest throw is, indeed, throwing in the towel.

First, to finish something is more important than to begin something!  But let’s not underestimate the importance of beginning something or even beginning something again.  But certainly it is better to have a thing turn out well than simply to start well.  Dreams turned into reality are much better than broken dreams.  How we end up is more important than than how we begin.  Now, the Bible itself puts a very high estimate on people who finish well.  When the apostle Paul talked about “fighting the good fight, finishing the race and keeping the faith,” he was really saying that he didn’t quit.

Second, to finish something, we need to break it up into manageable parts!  A good reminder here is that we do not take life in one big lump.  It doesn’t come to us that way. In God’s wisdom he has broken up this life of ours into pieces, and whereas we cannot handle life in one big piece.  This life appears to us one day at a time.  Former heavy weight boxing champion James J. Corbett understood.  He would frequently say, “You become the champion by fighting one more round.  When things are tough, you fight one more round.”

Finally, to finish something, we we need to be related to the Source of our motivation.  A minister friend said that he drove to his first pastorate right after graduation.  It was a bleak little parsonage to which he went as a single man. One light bulb hung from the ceiling in the living room, one in the bedroom, and one in the kitchen. Each functioned by a pull switch.  There on the mantle he saw a letter from his predecessor who had gone into the Army chaplaincy.  In the letter the former pastor wrote: “This is a seven-point circuit.  You will find more heartache here than perhaps you have at any other point in your life.  Don’t try to carry all of it alone.  If you do, it will crush you.  You will have to let God have some of it.”

My friend said, “I hadn’t been there a week before I knew he was right.”(Thomas A. Whiting, “Be Good to Yourself,” page 80).  James says. “Be sure you persevere to the end.”  He’s addressing life’s poorest throw-throwing in the towel.