How to Finish Well
Well When David Mumby, a member of my church, retired from the Navy after 27 years of serving his country, he asked me to speak for five minutes at his military retirement service. Here is what I said:
“When David asked me to say a few words, he requested that I mention a verse in the Bible that he felt appropriately described his military career. Paul said, ‘I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith’ (2 Tim. 4:7). It is immediately obvious how appropriate that is. Dave, you have fought the good fight. You have finished the race. You have kept the faith. The last sentence explains the first two sentences. In order to fight the good fight and finish the course, you must have faith.
“You need to trust yourself. Someone has said, ‘If you really put a small value upon yourself, rest assured that the world will not raise your price.’ Michael Jordan said, ‘You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.’ Martin Luther King, Jr. said, ‘Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.’ Lauren Becall said, ‘I am not a has-been. I am a will be.’ Samuel Johnson said, ‘Knock the ‘t’ off the ‘can’t.’’
“Dave, that’s what you did. At the beginning of your military career you expected things of yourself, you took the first step, you said, ‘I am a will be.’ You knocked the ‘t’ off of can’t.
“While trusting yourself is absolutely essential, if all you have is faith in yourself, you will be like the basketball player who wants to take all the shots. When one man on the team does that you can be sure the team will lose the game. You need more than faith in yourself; you need faith in the team.
“You need to trust the team. Vince Lombardi stated, ‘Individual commitment to a group effort—that is what makes a team work.’ A lesser-known coach named John Cook remarked, ‘Trust. Without it, there is no team. Of the teams I’ve coached that have been successful, all have had an unbelievable amount of trust in each other.’
“Dave, you’ve done that. You’ve been part of the team. You have trusted the team. While trusting yourself and the team are absolutely indispensable, that is not all there is to faith.
“You need faith in God. There are those moments in life when just faith in yourself and faith in the team is not sufficient. In those situations, you need faith in God. General Omar Bradley said, ‘We need to learn to set our course by the stars, not by the lights of every passing ship.’ People who set their course by a passing ship will find they are off course. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, ‘All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.’
“Years ago there was a professor at Cambridge University who was an atheist. One day that professor, C. S. Lewis, said, ‘I gave in and admitted that God was God.’ After writing a commentary on every book in the New Testament, scholar William Barclay wrote, ‘For Paul faith is always faith in a person. Faith is not the intellectual acceptance of a body of doctrine; faith is faith in a person.’ In the New Testament, of course, the person is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who died for the sins of the world and arose from the dead. “Dave, you have done that. You have trusted Jesus Christ.
“In order to fight the good fight, in order to finish the race, you must have faith in yourself, in your team, and in the Lord. Admittedly, to fight the fight, to run the race, there must be more than faith; there must be effort, hard work, and discipline, but if there is no faith, there will be no fight or hard-run race.
“Augustine said, ‘Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.’ Dave, you have worked hard and you have kept the faith. Now you can look back on your military career and see the fruit of your faith.”
© G. Michael Cocoris, 1/14/2013
“When David asked me to say a few words, he requested that I mention a verse in the Bible that he felt appropriately described his military career. Paul said, ‘I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith’ (2 Tim. 4:7). It is immediately obvious how appropriate that is. Dave, you have fought the good fight. You have finished the race. You have kept the faith. The last sentence explains the first two sentences. In order to fight the good fight and finish the course, you must have faith.
“You need to trust yourself. Someone has said, ‘If you really put a small value upon yourself, rest assured that the world will not raise your price.’ Michael Jordan said, ‘You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.’ Martin Luther King, Jr. said, ‘Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.’ Lauren Becall said, ‘I am not a has-been. I am a will be.’ Samuel Johnson said, ‘Knock the ‘t’ off the ‘can’t.’’
“Dave, that’s what you did. At the beginning of your military career you expected things of yourself, you took the first step, you said, ‘I am a will be.’ You knocked the ‘t’ off of can’t.
“While trusting yourself is absolutely essential, if all you have is faith in yourself, you will be like the basketball player who wants to take all the shots. When one man on the team does that you can be sure the team will lose the game. You need more than faith in yourself; you need faith in the team.
“You need to trust the team. Vince Lombardi stated, ‘Individual commitment to a group effort—that is what makes a team work.’ A lesser-known coach named John Cook remarked, ‘Trust. Without it, there is no team. Of the teams I’ve coached that have been successful, all have had an unbelievable amount of trust in each other.’
“Dave, you’ve done that. You’ve been part of the team. You have trusted the team. While trusting yourself and the team are absolutely indispensable, that is not all there is to faith.
“You need faith in God. There are those moments in life when just faith in yourself and faith in the team is not sufficient. In those situations, you need faith in God. General Omar Bradley said, ‘We need to learn to set our course by the stars, not by the lights of every passing ship.’ People who set their course by a passing ship will find they are off course. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, ‘All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.’
“Years ago there was a professor at Cambridge University who was an atheist. One day that professor, C. S. Lewis, said, ‘I gave in and admitted that God was God.’ After writing a commentary on every book in the New Testament, scholar William Barclay wrote, ‘For Paul faith is always faith in a person. Faith is not the intellectual acceptance of a body of doctrine; faith is faith in a person.’ In the New Testament, of course, the person is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who died for the sins of the world and arose from the dead. “Dave, you have done that. You have trusted Jesus Christ.
“In order to fight the good fight, in order to finish the race, you must have faith in yourself, in your team, and in the Lord. Admittedly, to fight the fight, to run the race, there must be more than faith; there must be effort, hard work, and discipline, but if there is no faith, there will be no fight or hard-run race.
“Augustine said, ‘Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.’ Dave, you have worked hard and you have kept the faith. Now you can look back on your military career and see the fruit of your faith.”
© G. Michael Cocoris, 1/14/2013