I Want to Run My Best Lap Last
July 10th, 2008 Posted in Missions | No Comments »I Want to Run My Best Lap Last
J. Lee Simmons
It was a hot swelterly day, the first Sunday in July of 1973, in the little sleepy Southern Ohio town of Chillicothe. This was my first official day of my first full-time ministry position. The smell of that day was unforgettable. The stench of hydrogen sulfide permeated the dense air from the Mead Paper Mill, the town’s leading employer. If a visitor complained about the smell, the local mantra was, “That the smell of money,” and so it was we found out when an extended strike several years later devastated the local economy and any anticipated increase to my meager and unlivable salary.
Here I was, fresh out of Seminary, well trained for theological inquire and debate, but little prepared for my official ministerial position of “Director of Christian Education and Youth” at the Tabernacle Baptist Church, which in reality was: whatever they Senior Pastor does not want to do, “you do it.” A few days earlier I moved with my bride of two years and our few earthly belonging of family cast offs to our little apartment to begin my life’s calling to “the ministry.” Those five years with those dear people—some dear because of a mutual deep love—others dear because they honed my character through adversity—thus proved to be in proving me, ministry training par excellence. A terrorist training camp pales in comparison to the rigor of such a boot camp.
So why, after three plus decades after that acrid Sunday morning do I remember it so keenly? Because, Sunday past, at the early service, only reminded so in the midst of preaching as I was expounding a point, that, that very Sunday was my 35th anniversary of full-time ministry. Quite clearly, as that subconscious thought erupted in my cranium, I interjected, “I just remembered I began full-time ministry thirty-five years ago, Today! And, just as quickly got back to preaching.
Thirty-five years of local church ministry. According to the drop-out of rate of local church pastors, I am part of a slim minority, a soon candidate for the endangered species list (but will we be federally funded?). With this present milestone, and my too soon approaching sixth decade of life, I have spend no little time in reflection and contemplation about approaching hoof beats of when my physical limitations, perhaps even mental (some suggest that milestone has already been breached), will bring this long season of vocational ministry to a final curtain.
All around are those of my generation who with the same years of work are able to retire and have a life of more leisure. Yes, I confess, the spirit of jealously does occasionally needs a stern rebuke. Surely the majority of newly minted sixty years olds think about retirement as often they once did when they were twenty about sex (female species excluded). Taking to them is like talking to those incarcerated, “when is your out date?’ is they typical prison-speak. Will it be the Social Security bookends of 62 and 67 or somewhere in between? Such is the verbal fodder of my peers. For those that stick it out longer either for financial need, survival from relationships that retirement would bring, or for some other altruistic reason, they are also a minority.
Options I have. Retirement, good retirement, financial stability (pending another submarine dive of the market or a debilitating illness or a surprise demise for myself or my spouse) can be mine and my dear wife’s in less than a decade. Ah, waking up daily in warm climate, golf whenever, thinking about chasing my wife around the house whenever (though not the energy to do it). Certainly, well deserved for a faithful servant. No one would question such a wise move. And the best, I have 2o years of archived message notes; I could begin to take it easier, slow down a bit, take a little more time off, turn off the motor and coast to the finish line. I could, but I can’t.
My contemplation and reflection at this ministry mile post and God’s persistent mission of “making and multiplying disciples to reach one million souls for Christ worldwide,” not only will not let me coast but will not also allow me to continue at a previous sustained pace. With this in mind, God has recently germinated a new focus for the final lap of ministry, “I want to run my best lap last.” If my ministry was a one mile race of four laps around the track, I am surely on, or nearly on my last lap. Will I be strong to minister at 70 or even 75 or will the fire still be in the belly as an Octogenarian? Or will my obituary precede it all?
Whatever the length of the final lap matters not, I want to run my best lap last. I want to run harder, stronger, more focused to the finish line, with nothing in reserve when I break the tape, nothing. I want to collapse like those highly gifted Olympians who lie on the track in sheer exhaustion and elation.
I know the training regimen I must be on. I must be in the best physical shape. Spiritually, I must be closer to my Master than ever for, hearing his voice clearer and sooner and reacting with NASCAR like response to the next critical turn. My family must still be my most important ministry: a stronger marriage, spiritually fathering my four grown children and their spouses and my precious five and soon to me more grandchildren. Though I am running this way primarily for my Lord, but secondarily for my family, who I want to never forget the way I ran my last lap. Eric Liddell (of Chariot’s of Fire renown) you have some competition.
I want to run my best lap last.