A Great Ending

The Bible is filled with stories of people who started well but finished horribly, like King Saul and Samson. Then there are those who started poorly but finished well.

Think of Nicodemus, whom we read about in John 3. He was just a guy coming to Jesus at night with some questions. There is no indication that he was a believer at that point. But at the end of the Gospel narrative, after Christ had been crucified, who stepped forward publicly, along with Joseph of Arimathea, and asked for Jesus’ body to give Him a proper burial? It was Nicodemus the Pharisee. Maybe he didn’t start all that well, but he ended very well.

The same could be said of Esther. We can argue as to whether Esther should have been upfront from the beginning about being a Jew when she was chosen by King Xerxes to be the new queen. But if the king knew she was a Jew, maybe he never would have married her. And if he hadn’t married her, maybe she wouldn’t have been in a position to save a nation. But even if Esther made a mistake initially, even if she compromised, even if she may not have started all that well, she finished very well.

Maybe you’ve made some mistakes in life. Maybe you’ve made some compromises and did some things you shouldn’t have done. Perhaps you feel the die is cast and your course is set. That isn’t true. You can still change. If you have made a mistake—or more to the point, if you have sinned, you can repent.

Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, wrote, "Finishing is better than starting. Patience is better than pride" (Ecclesiastes 7:8).

It isn’t always how you start that’s important. It’s how you finish.