"Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play…it is war minus the shooting."
Completion
Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus Philippians 1:6It is so exciting to see a friend or team mate come to faith. And so discouraging and disappointing to see them fall away. As sportspeople we know that leading at half-time or running a fast first lap is pointless if we finish up losing. Keeping going to the end is essential.
The great thing about our friends and their new-found faith is that it is God who opened their eyes to see the truth in the first place. And it is God whose job it is to bring it to completion. Of course, the person has a role to play in practising the disciplines of the Christian life. We have a role to play in encouraging, praying for and helping to disciple our friend. But at the end of the day it is God’s job.
Paul says that we are to have confidence that God will do it. He does not call people to faith to start the Christian life but to finish it. At the 1968 Olympics, marathon runner, John Stephen Akhwari from Tanzania, was injured in a fall early in the race. He ran on and limped across the finish line an hour after the winner saying, "My country did not send me 7,000 miles to start the race”. This lovely human story reminds us of a spiritual principle.
As we think of our friends who are young in the faith, let us do our part to bring them to maturity in Christ and also let us pray to God and ask him to do his.