I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them, God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.

1 Corinthians 10:1-6

It was about ten years ago or so when I had a conversation with a friend who is roughly ten years older than me. As he talked about the next stage in his life, he emphasized how he wanted to finish well. He saw too many others who limped across the finish line of life, others who turned sour and bitter and others who gave no real thought to their days.

The first few verses of the tenth chapter of 1 Corinthians continue Paul’s thoughts on finishing well by providing us with a clear picture of a group of people who clearly experienced the power of God in their lives. Those Israelites who walked through the Red Sea, ate manna, and saw water come from a rock, ultimately failed to finish well because of their lack of faith.

I was reminded again last week that each one of us is growing older and before the end of this century each will have reached the end of days on this planet.

How do you intend to finish? The writer of Hebrews encourages us to be “not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls” (Hebrews 10: 39).