Good Morning Friends,
In Michael Card’s account of his friendship with biblical scholar Bill Lane, The Walk, Lane became his professor, mentor, friend, and disciple maker. When Lane was dying of cancer, he chose to spend his final season near the younger man he had discipled, allowing even his death to become a final lesson in following Christ. But Card realized that lesson had begun years earlier. Lane’s dying was simply the culmination of a life Card had been watching all along. It sounds a lot like Paul and Timothy, and Jesus and His disciples. And it raises a question many of us eventually face: How Does A Christian Die?
Scripture And Summary:
2 Timothy 4:6–8, 16–18
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
“The Lord stood at my side and gave me strength.”
Paul knows death is approaching, yet there is remarkably little fear in his words. He looks backward and sees a fight fought, a race finished, and a faith kept. He looks around and acknowledges loneliness. Then he looks upward and sees what matters most:
The Lord stood with me.
Paul is finishing his walk with Jesus and, in doing so, showing Timothy how someday to finish his own.
Message: Paul did not simply give Timothy a theology of dying. He gave him a life to watch. Timothy watched Paul preach, suffer, forgive, endure rejection, love the church, and keep going when ministry became difficult. And now Timothy would watch him finish.
“I have fought the good fight.” Not every fight. The good fight. Perhaps age teaches us that many battles are simply not worth fighting.
“I have finished the race.” Notice Paul does not say, I won the race. He says, I finished it. The great Christian achievement is not celebrity, applause, influence, or even visible success. It is faithfulness.
And then: “I have kept the faith.” After suffering, disappointment, unanswered questions, abandonment, and prison, Paul still trusts Jesus.
But Paul did not invent this way of living. Jesus did.
Jesus called His disciples to be with Him. They walked together, ate together, failed, learned, watched Him pray, forgive, heal, suffer, and finally die. At the cross Jesus showed them the deepest truth of discipleship: Faithfulness means entrusting yourself completely to the Father. Paul learned that walk from Jesus. Timothy learned it from Paul. Michael Card learned some of it from Bill Lane.
And now the question comes to us: Who is walking behind you to receive the last lesson?
When we are young, we ask, What am I going to accomplish?
Later the question becomes, What am I going to leave in someone else?
And eventually: How will I finish?
Perhaps one of the great callings of an older Christian is to walk with someone long enough that they can see how faith finishes: how we handle weakness, release control, forgive, suffer, pray, and keep trusting Jesus when the road grows dark. Because discipleship is not merely transferring information. It is transferring a way of life. Jesus to Paul. Paul to Timothy. One generation walking beside another until the younger disciple can say: I learned not merely what he believed. I learned how he walked with Jesus.
And So, Christians prepare to die faithfully by learning to live faithfully, walking with Jesus and bringing someone else along. Not without fear. Not without pain. But believing when we say: The fight was worth fighting. The race was worth running. The faith was worth keeping. So, the greatest testimony of an old disciple is not, “Look what I accomplished.” It is Paul’s quiet confession: “The Lord stood at my side.” The question is not merely, How will I die? It is: How must I walk today so that my dying will simply be the final step of the life I have already been living with Jesus? And one more: Who is walking close enough to me to learn the way?
Pray Lord Jesus, that you teach us to walk with You all the way home. Pray you give us wisdom to know which battles are worth fighting, courage to keep running when the road is difficult, and grace to keep the faith when we cannot see what lies ahead. Pray You put people in our lives whom we can encourage as Paul encouraged Timothy. Pray You give us the humility to receive the wisdom of those who have walked farther down the road than we have. Pray our lives point to You. Pray our aging points to You. Pray our suffering points to You. Pray that when our races are finished our final testimony will simply be: The Lord stood beside us. Amen.
Blessings,
John Lawson
