The Finish Line – by Greg Albrecht
Friend and Partner Letter from February 2026:
An old(er) retired couple were watching television, and when a commercial came on the husband announced he was going into the kitchen for some ice cream. “Honey, would you like me to bring you some?” She said, “Yes, what a wonderful idea, but would you please put a little chocolate syrup on mine?” He said “of course” and as he started to walk toward the kitchen, she added, “Please write down what I have asked for—you know how forgetful you can be!”
He looked back, glared at her, shook his head in disgust and continued to shuffle toward the kitchen. Some 15 minutes later he finally came back, carrying a plate of scrambled eggs, and ceremoniously presented them to his bride of many years. Shaking her head, she said, “I told you to write down what I wanted. Now you have come back and you have forgotten the bacon I asked for!”
In sharing this story, I want to explain that I am not minimizing or ignoring the horrible scourge and nightmare of Alzheimer’s and other severe memory loss-related conditions. The stark reality both in the world at large, and within our own spiritual family here at CWR/PTM, is that many are, in one way or another, profoundly afflicted with the consequences of what is often generically called senile dementia.
Still, virtually all of us as seniors start to experience forgetfulness. We forget where we put our keys—we forget why we walked from one room of the house to another—and there are times when we forget that the menu item ordered was “ice cream” not “scrambled eggs and bacon.”
Getting old(er) means, among other things, that while we struggle with our physical vision in many ways, our spiritual vision is sharply focused on our finish line—the end of our magnificent journey here on earth, following Christ. Forgive me, I may have mentioned before that Karen and I have lived for almost 50 years about a mile from the Santa Anita racetrack in Arcadia, California.
Every few years we try to “go to the races”—observing in wonderment these magnificent animals as they gracefully make their way around the track against a beautiful backdrop of the San Gabriel mountains. These gorgeous horses are not concerned with the starting gate now behind them, but they are singularly straining toward what is ahead…as they press on toward the goal (Philippians 3:13).
I often think of the magnificent journey of our senior years, as we race toward our individual finish lines, rounding the final turn and heading toward home. We can “see” the finish line—we are coming home, we are preparing to enter our spiritual Promised Land. This beautiful end-of-life reality puts us in touch with eternal values, and we become less concerned with the physical, here-today-and-gone-tomorrow fleeting interests during our earthly sojourn.
Being old and being young—the beginning and the end—the starting gate and the finish line—have much in common. Consider children, and how God by his grace transforms us all into his little children:
Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these (Matthew 19:14).
Young children don’t worry much about proving themselves as adults, aided and abetted by Christ-less religion, feel they must. To be fair, it isn’t only religion that demands rigorous performance—society and our culture-at-large places burdens of performance on adults. Young children do of course want to grow up, but meanwhile they, if they are blessed by parents who can and do provide adequately for them, are filled with joy, laughter and fun.
As impatient as young children are to “grow up” their lives are optimally carefree and filled with exhilarating happiness. Young children will emphatically let us know they are not just three, but “three and one-half.” They are in a hurry, it seems, to get to a later stage in life that involves taking tests, applying for college, interviewing for a job, working and paying bills.
The early goals of little children include losing teeth and growing new, permanent ones. Going to school. Going to summer camp. Going on a vacation with their family. Still deeply desirous of growing up, during their elementary school years they yearn for the symbolic finish line of their thirteenth birthday that announces their “graduation” from being a little kid to a teenager.
Life is filled with graduations, goal posts and finish lines. Children can’t wait to finish middle school (or junior high for some), and become really grown up and enter high school—and all that high school includes—getting a driver’s license, falling in and out of puppy love numerous times, trying out for athletic teams, musical groups and drama clubs—many hoping and planning for a new horizon of work and perhaps college beyond high school graduation.
It’s a thrill, during younger years, when there seems to be no end of life, to reach goals that symbolize maturity and adulthood. Then high school graduates who attend college immediately start looking toward yet another finish line—another graduation—the end of college, and either more study and yet another academic graduation in the future, or starting a career. During this process of maturation and becoming a member of the adult community many begin to hope and dream of marriage and starting a family.
A finish line viewed as a goal is a wonderful motivation but as we grow we realize there are no “sheepskins” awarded for becoming mature and wise, nor are there any credentials (though some religious entities offer the illusion of religious certificates) for the most important relationship of all—our new life in Christ.
This month there will be plenty of finish lines crossed in Northern Italy during the Milano Cortina XXV Olympic Winter Games. Finish lines are goals and we have many in our lives, do we not? But whether they be physical, and particularly spiritual, a finish line, goal line, diploma, credential, and a graduation are not the end—they all merely signify the end of something that is now past and the introduction of yet more challenges that await us down the road.
Whether we are old(er) women and men with most of our lives and many finish lines behind us, or whether we are young(er) men and women with most of our lives and many future finish lines awaiting us, we are all God’s children, growing up and maturing, physically and spiritually.
The first time around in life, as a young child, we take pleasure in the joys and pleasures of the journey itself—life is carefree in many ways. Let the little children come to me.
The second time around, toward the end of our physical lives, is similar. By the time we have finished our career, retired or semi-retired, raised our families, when the dog-eat-dog world of competition and proving oneself is over (in large part at least), and we can join young children knowing that God really does have the whole world in his hands. Let the little children come to me.
Even while extremely young children and extremely old children are like all other humans, scared of the future, afraid of the unknown, yet in Christ, young and old have the advantage of knowing what it is like to fully trust in and rely on our heavenly Father, who has it all under his control, and has us all under his wings.
Our goal as a Christ-follower is to follow him on this road of life. Sure, we have good days and bad days as Christ-followers. On our best days we yearn to fully trust and believe that God is a Christ-like God, that is to say a God of love, grace and mercy. During our worst of times, when we take our eyes off Jesus who is the end, purpose and goal of life, who is our all in all, even during times when we fall down, stumble and wind up in the ditch, drenched in all manner of foul smelling stuff, we still know that God loves us anyway. We still know, during the bad days, that Jesus will reach out of his hand to us and pull us up back on our feet, wash and cleanse us and welcome us once again to the magnificent journey of following him.
As we said earlier, in our mortal lives here on earth, finish lines, goals, objectives, diplomas, graduations and credentials are not the end, they merely signify the end of one stage and the beginning of another. But in our spiritual lives as Christ-followers all these temporal goals are part of the race we run, the many physical finish lines and of course THE ULTIMATE goal who is Jesus. Jesus is the beginning and the end of all.
… let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfector of faith (Hebrews 12:1-2).
Two things:
- Set Your Mind on Jesus Christ. Focus on Him… He is THE ULTIMATE finish line of all the intermediate finish lines we encounter and face in life.
- Rest in Christ. Focus on the Road Ahead. Jesus is our Goal. Look Forward to eternity and all the goodness of God that await us as his children.
Let the little children come to me…
On this road of faith, this journey in and with our Lord, with you,
Greg Albrecht
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