It is almost impossible for me to wrap my brain around the fact that the remainder of this school year is now numbered in days.  In less than two weeks most of you will be done with finals, papers, projects, and then you will all be heading off to your various destinations for the summer.

I just want to offer up a few words of encouragement to you for the last few days of school—to finish strong.  With nicer weather upon us, and the end of school imminent, it can be really easy to let down your guard and just allow important things to slide.  

Academically, maybe you have procrastinated completing some of those required papers and projects.  Or perhaps you haven’t finished all the required reading for a course.  Or, you look ahead to finals week and find yourself just too tired or just too apathetic to care at this point.  You are not alone in the way you feel, but just because a lot of people around you are ready to throw in the towel and settle for mediocrity does not mean you should—especially if you are a serious disciple of Jesus.  Maybe you would like nothing more than to just blow the whole thing off and turn in a half-hearted attempt only to satisfy the minimum requirements.  Finish strong!  Give it your best.  Scripture would tell you that… “whatever your hand [or mind] finds to do, do it with all your strength.”(Ecc. 9:10); and  … Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men,…  Col.3:23.   Consider that finishing strong is more than an academic issue.  It is also a spiritual issue.  Finish strong!

The challenge to finish strong is not about guilt, it is about your identity in Christ.  When I consider the last two weeks of Jesus’ life on earth he did not just slide to the cross—he resolutely set his face toward it.  He wrestled in prayer in Gethsemane, and he arose to bravely face the toughest test of his life—much tougher than his forty days of fasting in the desert followed by Satan’s tempting attacks on him.  Now, heading toward the end, he faced the tough road to the cross.  What might have become a permanently humiliating event became his moment of glory and victory.  The way Jesus finished strong was not just about what he did, but also about who he was.

In the same way, if you are a disciple of Jesus, how you finish out the last few days of school is not just about what you do… it is also about who you are.  You are his.  You are to reflect HIS glory.  And you want—at the end of this semester—to be able to look at yourself in the mirror and say… Hey! You FINISHED STRONG!