Looking Back

2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18

When I was in college, we had a huge gym for basketball and other indoor sports with permanent rows of seats on each side of the court. For a small Division III college, Memorial Hall could easily seat 4000 people. Each side had three sets of stairs that ran from the floor to the very top row. Just for fun, we would run up and down these sets of stairs. A full set consisted of running up and down all six staircases. It was a great workout!

I hadn’t really thought about this in a long time, until I came across a certain web site dedicated to the sport of (wait for it) professional stair climbing! Holy Cow! Professional stair climbing: are you kidding me? Most of us can surmise what this sport is all about just by the name itself. Unbeknownst to me, there are stair climbing races held throughout the world in some of the tallest buildings in the world. It is described as one of the most grueling sports out there. According to the web site, “stair climbing burns about twice as many calories than any other sport or activity. Because it is a grueling sport, stair climbing requires less time to do the same intensity of a workout. For example, if you run 30 minutes per day, the same workout intensity could be achieved with 15 minutes of stair climbing.” There was a race recently in Jacksonville, Florida where runners participated in a groundbreaking 24-hour endurance event where the climbers repeatedly scrambled up the Bank of America Tower's 42 floors. By the time they were finished, they had logged 123,480 steps and 5,880 floors -- the equivalent of scaling Mount Everest two and a half times. And you thought walking up a few flights of stairs on occasion was tough!

Point is, running vertical can be tough, but it's also a great way for all of us to achieve good health, a sense of satisfaction and a stronger desire to keep moving. It can help us keep going in the race of life.

You get the sense from reading Paul's letter to Timothy that he's climbed too many steps to count as he traveled all over the Roman world preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul had certainly had his own share of injuries from a myriad of beatings and imprisonments. But now, as he stands at the pinnacle of his life as an apostle, Paul looks back and realizes that the race was all worth it.

"I have fought the good fight,” Paul writes. “I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord will give me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing" (2 Timothy 4:7-8).

One way to take stock of our lives is to look back to our past; to the path that led us to where we are today. We can see where we’ve failed and where we’ve succeeded. We can see the joyful times and the sad times. We can see where, when and how God has been involved in our lives. This act of reflection enables us to measure what kind of stewards we are with God’s blessings.

For Paul, the race was always about focusing on Christ. In Philippians 3:14 he puts it like this: "I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call in Jesus Christ." To the Colossian Christians he writes, "So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God" (Colossians 3:1, emphasis added). Paul spent most of his life traveling long distances, but he was always looking toward a higher calling and a prize worth racing toward step by step. Looking back, he has a clear view of every step he and God have traveled together. Indeed, it was the focus on the prize awaiting him at the top of those steps that kept him going, along with the constant steps of the Lord beside him, giving him "strength," rescuing him from "the lion's mouth," and saving him for "[God's] heavenly kingdom" (vv. 17-18).

As Paul looks back, he offers encouragement to the one who must look ahead: his young protégé Timothy. The text implies that Timothy will be the one to pick up the baton Paul is passing to him and continue the long journey of following Christ. He encourages Timothy to "continue in what you have learned and firmly believed" (3:14). There will be opposition from those who want to take the shortcut or the easy way (4:1-4) but, Paul says, "As for you, always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully" (4:5).

In other words, he commands Timothy and each of us today to practice what we preach as we move forward in our journey with Christ. We must demonstrate through our actions to all whom we encounter what we confess with our lips. In order for each of us to have any kind of credibility as a Christian, we must make certain our own house is in order. Do we say one thing and do another? Do we promise the sun, moon and the stars but it always falls through? Do we praise and worship God in Christ on Sundays but forget about him the rest of the week? Do we commit our finances to God and don’t follow through? The most influential stewardship witness we can make is to be good stewards ourselves. Paul is encouraging Timothy to be a good steward of his leadership role; to use it wisely, to be a positive example of what it means to be a steward of God in Christ. We must say what we mean and mean what we say. We must live our faith every day of the week, not just on Sundays. We must meet our financial commitments to our church so trust can be forged and confidence can be shaped in our relationship with God and one another.

In other words, it’s all about finishing well. The point of every race is to finish. Some will finish faster and stronger than others, but everyone who undertakes a race does so to do their best. We know that stair climbing is becoming more popular because it's something anyone can do. In fact, tower running is never about racing directly against your opponent. All tower runners compete against themselves and the clock, doing their best to finish the race in their own best time. Following Jesus is about doing the best we can, too. It's not about comparing ourselves to others, but encouraging each other to follow the road that has been laid out before us; to do the best we can in running the race to achieve the prize -- the eternal calling of God in Christ.

This is the Good News of Jesus Christ. Believe it and live it. Amen.