I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how a person goes about finishing well. The end of the school year always brings these thoughts around, since I both work and serve in school year based environments. This year however, it’s different, there is more than simply finishing another year. Deep in my soul, I’ve felt this season of change brewing for some time. While I don’t yet know all that means for me personally, I do know pieces and I firmly believe God will open my eyes and lead me to know more in His time. This question of how do you finish well, actually comes from conversations with some good friends about our lives and things, places, even people God seems to be calling us away from. 

All of us have finish lines as we walk through this life. From graduating High School or College to stepping away from a long time ministry we serve in, or church we’ve grown in, all the way to retirement. With these finish lines in mind, I’m more and more convicted that each of them come with a choice of how we cross that line. We can choose to finish well, obeying God and stepping away when He leads. Or we can finish worn out, beat down and finish badly, burning bridges and damaging relationships, potentially damaging our witness for Jesus in the process.  

Ecclesiastes 3 talks about how there is a “season for everything under heaven”. I actually like the way the Message paraphrases this passage saying there is a “right time for everything”. Those words confirm in my mind that a big part of the battle to finish well comes from knowing when the “right time” has come. I’ll be honest and say I’ve missed or maybe even chosen to disobey God’s directive to step away in the past. My desire is to do better going forward, which means accpeting and acknowledging mistakes from my past.

One of the areas I serve in at our church is as a high school community group leader. Two summers ago I went into our summer camp firmly believing that was my finish line, pretty confident that God was telling me to step away. I walked away from that camp choosing instead to ignore God’s prompting and finish out my commitment to this group of students and stay until they graduated, which is this May. I’m not gonna lie to y’all. While I love these girls like they were my own and would do anything for them, these last two years have been beyond hard! The thing is, God gave me another chance to obey this past fall when my mom got sick, once again I failed to obey. My pride and selfishness got the best of me, thinking and believing no one could or should finish with these girls but me. I’d made a commitment to do four years with them and I was going to fulfill that commitment no matter what. Ugh! I know, the blatent disobedience in these words breaks my heart! The idea of fullfilling a commitment does bring about another question though. How do you balance fulfilling a commitment made earnestly, with a clear call from God to step away? Doesn’t God want me to fulfill commitments to serve? 

Psalms 1:1-3 says “How happy is the one who does not walk in the advice of the wicked or stand in the pathway with sinners or sit in the company of mockers! Instead, his delight is in the Lord’s instruction, and he meditates on it day and night.He is like a tree planted beside flowing streams that bears its fruit in its season,and its leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.” I might be wrong here, but I believe that if God calls us to walk away from a commitment we’ve earnestly made, He does so for good reason. Our obedience to what and go where God calls has to be the overriding factor in all that we do! Looking back over my example, using these verses in Psalms 1, this ministry and commitment got hard because I was not being nourished by my Savior. He was calling me to rest and plant myself by His flowing streams, instead I chose to stay in a place I was not meant to be therefore my “leaf did wither and failed to produce fruit”. God knew two summers ago, my mom’s health would decline quickly. If I had obeyed I could have entered that “season of suck” more rested and perhaps better prepared to handle what was coming.

Don’t get me wrong here – I know this isn’t all about me! God can and will use even our disobedience for His good and glory, teaching us in the process. Which is exactly what He’s done here. He has grown these young ladies, bonded our group together through heartache and loss and taught us some valuable lessons. However, I fully admit I’ve made a ton of mistakes and more than likely done damage to my witness along the way. Nothing that God can’t repair, but what if I would have obeyed the first time? Could these students have grown more, could I now be ready to step into whatever God has next for me, who else could have been blessed by the opportunity to know and love these students besides me? 

It’s important to clarify that just because ministry, work or a relationship is hard, doesn’t necessarily mean God is calling you to step away. It may be that He wants you to grow, wait or lean more fully on Him to endure. Consider Jeremiah 29. While most of us can quote verse 11 by heart, “For I know the plans I have for you”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“plans for your well-being, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” It’s what comes before that verse that is applicable here. This verse is part of a letter written by the prophet Jeremiah to the people of Jerusalem who had been deported to Babolyn. In this letter, the prophet clearly tells the people, they have NOT reached their finish line, they still had 70 years to remain in exile. He does, however, tell them how to live while they wait. Check out verses 29:5-7 “Build houses and live in them. Plant gardens and eat their produce. Find wives for yourselves, and have sons and daughters. Find wives for your sons and give your daughters to men in marriage so that they may bear sons and daughters. Multiply there; do not decrease. Pursue the well-being of the city I have deported you to. Pray to the Lord on its behalf, for when it thrives, you will thrive.” Jeremiah basically says “God wants you here for now, so go ahead live and thrive-exactly where He’s planted you.”. Bottom line, sometimes life and ministry can be hard and confusing. As believers, we have to make and take time to seek God and His directions in ALL things. That includes being quiet and still long enough to hear Him. 

Finish lines are going to continue to come and go. We all have them. God might be calling you to finish well where you have been and move into something new, whether that be retirement, a new role at church or a new church all together. The question is, if He is calling you to finish,  how will you choose to do so? As for me, I am looking forward with renewed passion and hope to my finish line with these senior girls in just a few weeks at camp! After that, I will rest and wait for God to lead me to whatever is next. My encouragement and prayer is that you make the time to earnestly seek God and if/when He calls you to move, do so with courage. On the flip side, if God is asking you to stay, wait or push through I’m also praying you obey as well, asking Him to sustain and help you push on to your finish line whenever that may be.