By Brenda Cannon Henley
If you have written for any length of time and are decent at your craft, you know that the ideas for good stories, columns, news articles, and even investigative pieces come to your mind at strange times and by way of many sources, some of whom will never know they helped you. Am I not correct, Jennifer King Moody and Melissa Bech? We write what we live or feel unless it is a carefully scripted report or interview.
The teacher that I will forever credit for pushing me into writing said many times, “Write what you know and feel.” And that’s exactly what I do. I was thinking early this morning that it really doesn’t matter too much how you begin a race or a task or even life, it is how you finish that counts. Sometimes we stumble, run into others, get waylaid or distracted, get off course, or faint because of fatigue, illness, or injury. Determined folks get back up and go at it again. I almost wrote “strong folks,” but I decided that many may not be termed “strong,” and yet they are on course for finishing well.
This is a Scriptural principle as well. Paul wrote about the race of life. We read in 2 Timothy 4:7 where he wrote, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (New International Version) “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful.” (New Living Translation) However, I find that I like the translation chosen in the King James Bible where it says, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished ‘my’ course, I have kept the faith.” The key word for me here is “my” course or “my” race. Each of us has a race that is set before us. I cannot live or run yours and you cannot live or run mine. We must do it as an individual.
A friend sent me a funny writing about how she wanted to die. I had a bit of an issue about it since Ted has been dead such a short time, but I read it with interest and got her meaning. In the writing, a frazzled looking lady is depicted as running a race compared to her life. She goes here and there, does many different things, and skids into her final resting place with one foot on a banana peel and one into the edge of an open grave. She exclaims in a circle over her head, “I have had a good ride. I have enjoyed life. I have done all I wanted to do, and I am ready to go.” or something close to that verbage.
I like that thought. I don’t want to go to my grave after being an invalid for years with others taking care of me. I want to be active, healthy, happy, involved, doing for others, and moving on. Death will surely come as a surprise to many of us. Now, before I get hate mail, let me state clearly that only the dear Lord knows how we will end our lives. I also know we don’t get to ask and choose. But, if I had my way, I would go from the beach or the bay, perhaps with a fishing rod in my hand, and the waves lapping onto shore. I’d like the gulls and pelicans flying overhead and the sound of ships’ horns blowing in the distance.
And I want to finish strong. All of us have had bobbles in our course. None of us have lived perfectly (most of all those that think they have) and we have hurt people along the way. We may not have gotten a good start out of the gate, or we may have gotten off course, but we can vow today to finish the race of life well. We can right the wrongs we feel we should, we can help others as we can, we can give where we have the funds, we can smile and be friendly, and we can give up on gripping and critiquing every single thing and every single person in our scope.
Here are four simple principles that I learned many years ago to help us run our race well and to finish strong.
- Learn to run light. Get rid of all of the extra weights that would hold us back. Be prepared.
- We must run with the goal in sight. We must run our race with the right motive.
- We must have a clear objective and remain focused (this one thing I do).
- Learn not to look back. Everyone that has ever run a race or seen runners do their thing knows they can break their stride if they look back to see how their opponents are doing. More than one race has certainly been lost by a front runner who looked back.
Ecclesiastes 7:8 reminds us that “Better is the end of a thing of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.”
Brenda Cannon Henley can be reached at (409) 781-8788, at
[email protected], or by using the contact form below.
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