I know it has been awhile since I have written and how ironic that my first topic back would be on finishing strong. Recently, I watched a snippet of Kevin Hart during one of his comedy specials and he was talking about an experience he had at a gym. Kevin, in a very comedic way, described the situation of a muscled up guy on the weight bench doing some bench press reps. Kevin then said this gentlemen started to stack more and more pounds on the barbell, grunted loudly, powdered up his hands, and paced around the bench press for the sake of drama and attention. So as Kevin Hart observed this, Kevin actually got excited and wanted to see this guy actually bench press half a ton of steel. But, to Kevin Hart's disappointment, the guy did not even make an attempt, the guy just simply walked away.
Now if you will allow me to go the scripture on this,
Luke 14: 27-33, Jesus gives two short parables about finishing what you start. One was of a man who had to consider if he had enough to finish building a tower, the other was of a king who had to consider if he had enough troops to send into battle. It is interesting that it is not mentioned if either man took action, but we are told that they thought about the negative results of what could happen if they failed. Vince McMahon said in an interview recently that the millennial generation, the Y generation, does not even try to make attempts of going for it all because they are afraid to fail because failing exposes them. It seems lack we are afraid to even start on something because we do not want to end up being exposed..."
Otherwise,
when he has laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it
begin to mock him, saying, `This man began to build, and was not able to
finish."
But let us tell the truth on some things, if God has called us to do a great work, which is go all in to His will and purpose, we should not have the fear of being exposed. I say that because we should have the faith to believe that God will give us the strength to finish what He has called us to start. Now we need to be clear, we have to see what exactly we are being called to: if we are called to build a tower but we go out to try and build an army, we are going in the wrong direction and we will certainly get exposed.
"I can never quit when it gets hard. if you quit, you going backwards, if you going backwards you're dead," unknown author. I want to leave you with this thought, and that is the thought Kobe Bryant laid on the sports world announcing his retirement. Now, when he first started in the NBA twenty years ago, he set out to be a champion and he accomplished that goal. Nothing was going to deter him from that: not critics, coaches, players, off the court issues. Other players in his draft class seemingly fell off the planet and some ask where are they now. But Kobe endured and accomplished his goal. With that being said, how much more are we to continue on in the faith and complete the work that God has put in our hearts to do.
