Finishing Well: Closing Life's Significant Chapters, 용서는 인생의 한 장을 닫고 새 장을 열 수 있게 한다.

FinishingWell.docx

David W.R. Wong, Finishing Well: Closing Life’s Significant Chapters, Singapore, BAC, 2006

1.     Moses: So Near, Yet So Far

Moses died outside the Promised Land, never setting foot on it… He lost his temper while representing his God to the people. In that sense, he did not uphold the holiness of the Lord. We must never underestimate the seriousness of sin. Moses did not heed the word of the Lord. He did not take it seriously. He allowed his flesh to get the better of him. (90) Stay where you are; do not interrupt what I am doing. (91) How easy it is to give in to the flesh when we do the work of the Lord!

 

2.     John the Baptist: The Greatest, Yet the Least

We are not home yet. Such a perspective is essential to finishing well. Closing a significant chapter of life does not always mean a perfect ending. Or an ending where we get everything we want. Some closures remain open-ended. Not all the expectations are met. Not all the wrongs are righted. Not all questions are answered… It will be the divine hand, not ours, that closes such chapters. (97-98)

John had spent his whole life waiting for the One who was to come. He had spent his entire adult life telling people about him. His ministry reached its peak on the day he pointed the people to Jesus as the One. In prison, he wondered if it was all one big mistake. From John’s point of view, everything had gone wrong. Was Jesus truly the One who was to come? Some of us have been through such times. (101)

3.     Joseph: Closing a Chapter of Hurt

How did he close that chapter of his life? We get a clue from the way he named his two sons…. Noted that in both cases, Joseph was careful to make reference to God. God made him to forget. God made him to be fruitful. Despite all that had happened to him, he did not forget his God… (113) To close the chapter of hurt, we begin by recognizing God’s hand in all that has happened. Nothing happens by accident or by chance. Nothing happens without the purpose or the permission of God. (114) If we focus on the people who have harmed us or grieved us, we will become angry with them. If we focus on the things that has happened to us, we will become bitter with them. But if we turn our attention to our Lord and acknowledge that he has a higher purpose for everything that happens to us, we will find peace… (114) It seems strange to call a son “Manasseh.” (114) 

 

4.     David: Closing a Chapter of Grief

Grief must be net with grace and forgiveness…. If David had been like the father in Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son, the story of Absalom would have had a happy ending. If David had run out to meet Absalom, embraced him and welcomed him home, it would have made a difference to Absalom, to David and to their relationship with each other. His anguished wails of “O my son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom!” came too late. No chapter of grief can close without forgiveness – forgiveness released for hurt, mistakes and regrets. David could not forgive his son, and in the end, he could not forgive himself. The chapter on Absalom was never closed. (128-129)

 

5.     Naomi: Closing a Chapter of Loss

Loss can so devastate us that we are unable to care for ourselves… We may lose something or someone, but God is never lost to us. He may seem distant or absent, but his hand reaches to us wherever we are. (135) But Naomi’s concern had shifted from herself to Ruth, from her own adversity to someone else’s future. We can put loss behind us only if we arise from our self-pity and resolve to do something for others… They close their chapters by moving on to help others close theirs. (137)

 

6.     Job: Closing a Chapter of Doubt

Nothing bumbles a proud person like the question of origin. (146) Job needed only two things from God. First that God would speak and say something. Second, that God would demonstrate that he has the answers. Both of these happened in the concluding chapters of the book. God finally spoke, so Job knew that he was not alone. And God spoke in such a way as to leave Job in no doubt that he is sovereign: God knows what he is doing, everything is under his control, and everything will be well. Job could lay his doubt to rest and bring that phase of his life to a close. (148) In the final analysis, it is not about knowing all the answers; it is about knowing someone who knows where he is going and feeling safe with him. (149)

 

7.     Simon Peter: Closing a Chapter of Failure

We need to accept forgiveness…. We have no reason to refuse his invitation, He is more than willing to forgive us than we are to admit our need for him. (159)

8.     Paul: Closing a Chapter of Success

The church is purchased with the blood of Christ…. Paul was able to take leave of the church in Ephesus despite all the trouble he foresaw because he was convinced that it was not his church. It was the church of God. God will take care of his own. (166)

The future always frightening… Yet he rather preferred to be in the will of God with all its attendant troubles, than to be outside the will of God. Setting our face towards the place of God’s will does not guarantee us a smooth passage there… But obedience to God does offer us a sense of “fit,” knowing we are where God wants us to be. (170)

Closing a chapter of success does not mean the end of our usefulness. On the contrary, our effectiveness can rise to another level where we do what others cannot do, allowing them to do what we used to do…. Many successful leaders become possessive of what they do, and their work dies with them. (171)