Day 8: Fight the Good Fight
“However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me–the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.” -Acts 20:24
Fighting the good fight, keeping the faith, and finishing the race was very important to Paul, even to the point of considering his own life worth nothing.
No matter our stage of life, all of us would like to finish what we are doing and do it well. From making something by sand at the beach to writing a few lines of a poem; from playing with legos to setting up a dorm or a new house, from finishing up at school to keeping relationships in our lives, we want to finish well. Regardless of the stages of life or what task we have, there will be challenges, and we’ll have to fight them.
Before coming to study at Point, I had done my Masters in Mathematics and played the most popular sport, cricket, for the university and my town in India. My English was very poor, so staying enrolled was very difficult. I accepted that challenge and was helped by everyone. Today, I am a graduate of this prestigious university, and this year was asked to speak at Pepperdine University and International Conference on Missions as one of the main speakers. I am mentioning this because I faced a stage in life when I wanted to run away from my education at Point, go back to my nation, and be comfortable living with people who speak my own language.
After graduating from Point, I had taken a challenge to return to India to preach and take the Gospel of Jesus Christ to our people. There were obstacles at every stage; persecution came in many forms. Our evangelists were killed and beaten, and their houses torched, but efforts continued. In over 20 years of serving in our nation, God has enabled us to work with 78 evangelists and plant 144 churches.
When life throws you challenges, giving up is the easiest thing. Doing your best to keep running is important. I encourage you to do that because we know that the challenges of this life, and even the cross, is not the end.
Written by Vivert Lall ’96, Mid-India Christian Mission