The End

"I have finished the race"
2 Timothy 4:7

My family attended the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, and one of the events that my Sweetie and I attended was the Women's Slalom.  The spectators are all given a place to stand around the finish line, and there's a video screen so that you can see the first part of the run, because it's so far up the mountain.   But it was snowing very hard the day we went, and as we watched the screen, we could barely see the skiers until they got around the curve, and far enough down where we could see them with our own eyes.  And even then, we really had to strain to see.

I cannot tell you the name of the woman who won that race, but there was one woman I will never forget.   You know, that in the slalom, they have to schuzz this way, then that way.... left of this gate, right of that one.... as fast as they can.   Well, this racer, just as she came into our view, missed a gate, and ended up off the course.  And the weather being what it was, she was not the only one to do that.

Well, at this point, their race is over, so they just ski dejectedly down the rest of the mountain, and receive their applause for effort.  But this particular racer, when she came to a stop off the course, hiked back up the hill, still on her skis, in the blowing snow, to the gate she had missed.  And she completed the course.

I thought there was so much honor in that.  She knew her race was over, and that next to her name on the score sheet, the official Olympic results will forever show "DNF":  Did Not Finish.  But she did finish, and she finished well.

Life is a marathon.  But within that marathon are smaller races.  Trials, struggles, or even just tasks our Lord has assigned us, that need to be finished well.  Raising your children, working hard in school, keeping the faith through a difficult time.  It is a victory to finish, and finish well.  Make Him proud.

~ "I have fought the good fight,

I have finished the race,

I have kept the faith." ~

2 Timothy 4:7