I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. – 2 Timothy 4:7

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 18, 2012): 2 Timothy 4

Death is not a subject that is on the list of things that we like to talk about. In fact, it is often the elephant in the room when someone is sick and approaching the end of this life. It is probably the one thing that we should talk about, but we don’t. We find other things to say. We avoid the subject.

And it is not just those of us on the outside looking in. When it is us that is in the position of recognizing that our days are growing short, we just want to deny our own health problems. I admit that I am a bit of a morbid person. One thing I do when I am reading about a person is look to see how they died. I am surprised at how many times death seems to just sneak up on the person. It is reflected in the words “died suddenly” or “after a short illness.” Sometimes, that is exactly the situation. But a number of times death came suddenly because we ignored the signs in our own lives that something was wrong.

Paul is ending his journey – and he knows it. It isn’t that he is sick. And it definitely isn’t that he had accomplished everything that he wanted to do. There were things still on his “to do” list; there were places that he still wanted to go. But the signs were gathering that those things weren’t going to be possible. His journey was coming to an end.

And so Paul looked back at his life and even with the things that were unfinished he could say that he had finished the race. And he had finished it positively – he had no regrets.

It is the way that I hope we can all look back sat our lives when the time comes. Not that we have completed everything that is on our “bucket list.” But that everything that we have had a chance to complete, we completed with integrity – we know that we have done our best – and God has been present in all of the events of our lives.

So as Paul finishes his letter, his words are strong. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have kept the faith. Timothy, I hope, and I pray, that when you get to this place in your life, you can say the exact same thing.

Note: If you have been with me since the beginning of this blog in January 2009, then with today’s reading we have completed the entire Bible. I have been praying and thinking about what to do next, so with tomorrow’s blog entry we will begin our second trip through the Bible, but this time we will do it chronologically.

Thanks for joining me in the journey and I hope that you want to continue with me. I want you to know how much I appreciate you taking this ride with me.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Genesis 1