THE HARDEST PART OF FAITH IS THE LAST HALF MILE!

Hebrews 10:36
“For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.”

I started jogging when we lived in Chatsworth,CA., about 1975. The girls were small and we had just moved to the Los Angeles area from Dallas. I learned to love to run in the late afternoon after a full day in the office.

I normally got to the ministry office about 7 a.m. and tried to get home around 4 or 4:30. Whether I was at home or on the road, jogging was something that I could do if I was in the city or in a foreign country. After a busy day I looked forward to getting outside and running for 30 or 40 minutes. Jogging helped me relax and clear my head from a day full of meetings or just old-fashioned busyness!

Jogging doesn’t require a lot of equipment. A good pair of jogging shoes, a pair of socks, a pair of shorts and a tee shirt and I was ready. Oh, yes, there was one other piece of equipment: my trusty $15 Timex sports watch…I loved that little watch, and still have it, because they had named it Ironman and when I put that watch on, that was me!

At home, I liked to run a predetermined route and I always had several paths of different lengths that I could follow, depending upon how I felt. I would warm up and start jogging, and then make my decision as to which route I would take…the two-mile route, the three-mile, etc.

As I was finishing my run, a strange discussion would take place in my head. Up ahead I would see the invisible finish line that meant I had completely run my path. My mind would start cajoling me with little statements like, “There’s the finish line; you can stop running now and walk the rest of the way.” Or, “You’re getting too old for this; your heart is pounding, you are sweating, your legs are tired. You can quit now; you don’t have to run the last 200 or 300 yards!” Or, “There’s nobody around. Who will know if you quit now? What difference does it make?” Almost every day during the last few minutes, the last half mile was always the hardest to do. I ran consistently for nearly 23 years and true to form, my mind never gave up trying to convince me to quit early, to slow down just before I got to the finish line.

When Paul was writing to Timothy, his son in the Gospel, in 2 Timothy 4:7, Paul says:
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

Paul knew that his life was nearly complete as he penned these words to this young man he loved so much. I think one of the things very much on his mind was the satisfaction that he did not quit short of the goal. He didn’t stop running the race a half mile early just because there was no one to witness him going across the finish line. However, Paul knew that wasn’t true: At least two would know…he would know and God would know the commitment he had made to finish and to finish well.

I am indebted to our long-time friend, David Wilkerson, for a very brief chapter that he wrote nearly 40 years ago in a little devotional-style book entitled I’M NOT MAD AT GOD. In a chapter entitled “The Faith of Giants,” David writes, “Can a man still speak the language of faith when all his leadings ‘blow up’ in his face? The giants of faith did! Men of faith faced the most fiery trials. God has peculiar ways of developing faith, and the deeper in God you go, the more peculiar will be your testing. Do not think that afflictions are necessarily proof that you are displeasing Him! Miracles are produced only amidst impossibilities. The most critical part of faith is ‘the last half hour.’”

God wants us to finish the race well. No one said it is going to get any easier. With the Apostle, I want to be able to say, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

The hardest part of faith is the last half mile but we do not run alone!

(Originally published March 2006)