I never read 2 Timothy 4:7 without memories of my precious Nanny flooding my heart. My mom's mom lived with our family all the days of my life before she passed into glory. She was a woman of tremendous courage. Having lived through the Depression, the sudden loss of her husband, and then facing multiple cancer diagnoses, she epitomized bravery to me as a young girl. She had a strength of character that was rare. She died when I was 12 years old and I often wish I could turn the clock back and know her now. As a pre-teen I was still pretty much a child when God called her home, and I know I often gave her a hard time and was not as sensitive to her needs as I should have been. I wish I could tell her how my memories of her now are filled with love for every sacrifice she made and every stand she took as she lived for Christ so faithfully. The verse from 2 Timothy was inscribed as the epitaph on her tombstone and remains as a testimony of one who lived and died for her Lord.
We do not get to write the last chapter of our lives, but if we could, how would we like the final pages to end? We will all face death. Not one of us will escape dying unless Christ returns while we are living and we meet Him in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:17). Just recently the question was posed to me, "What is one of your greatest fears?" I know that when the Lord calls me home my eternal destiny is secure through the salvation of Christ's blood on the cross, but it is the "how" of that journey that makes me anxious. Some people die quickly and peacefully, while others really struggle in tremendous pain at the end of their lives. I heard a nurse say once that we fight to be born and we fight to die. How can we finish the race well?
Paul, in writing to young Timothy, has the assurance of three things. He had fought the good fight. He had finished the race. He had kept the faith. Paul realized that life was not something to be safeguarded, but to be surrendered as a sacrifice. He poured his life out as an offering to God, even at his death. He was dying, like he was living, completely given over to the will of Christ. I recall Dr. Rick Reed teaching, "Live sacrificially, so that death will be the final installment of your offering." Oh, to have the mindset that embraces that truth.
When Jesus saved us, it was not just to start a race, but to finish the race. The Christian life is a fight worth fighting, a race worth running and a faith worth keeping. When our days have ended and others left behind here on earth think about us, what will they remember? With all my heart I pray to be remembered as one who made choices that honour the Lord and was constantly growing in my walk with Him. I pray that someone will say, "I recall a woman, can't remember her name, but she loved like Jesus and His presence shone through her countenance."
I recently read a poem by Amy Carmichael, who once described her missionary life as simply, "a chance to die." As a missionary to India for 56 years, she experienced incredible tests of faith and courage. I want to close with a poem that gives evidence of a life poured out for the sake of the Gospel, from one who finished well.
Make Me Thy Fuel
From prayer that asks that I may be, Sheltered from winds that beat on Thee
From fearing when I should aspire, From faltering when I should climb higher,
From silken self, O Captain free, Thy soldier who would follow Thee.
From subtle love of softening things, From easy choices, weakenings
(Not thus our spirits fortified, Not this way went the crucified)
From all that dims Thy Calvary, O Lamb of God, deliver me.
Give me the love that will lead the way, The faith that nothing can dismay,
The hope no disappointments tire, The passion that will burn like fire
Let me not sink to be a clod: Make me Thy fuel, O Lamb of God.
No comments:
Post a Comment