Parakalein

Several days ago "I finished" the ING New York City Marathon in record time for me.  I finished in over 7 hours for the first time in my life.  My ego was mostly okay with that.  I had a part that said I could have done a 6:38 finish time which is what I did last year.  I could have strove harder, pushed more, and stayed more focused on the finish line.  Yet it was my best marathon in that I talked to people encouraged first time marathoners who went out too fast and were really hurting as I walked by them, I slowed down and walked with them talking with them as they went, encouraging them in the journey to the finish line.  Some I walked with for just a few minutes as I respected their focus and not wanting to waist energy in talking.  They just wanted to finish.  I get that.   Others really wanted to talk as it took the focus off their pain.  When they asked me my name and I said Don Paine, I watched eyes roll but the feet kept moving.
It did not matter to me what country they were from or what ethnic group or what religion they were I was presenting the encouraging presence of a fellow on the same journey.  I crossed the finish line with the memory of hundreds of people who I had talked with in my heart and mind.

I imagined that this might have been what Jesus had in his heart as he finished the course of his journey at the cross.  In his heart and mind were all the people he had talked with, been with in their journey, healed, challenged, had compassion on and then there were all the people of history that he looked back on and all the people of the future he looked forward too, He had all of humanity past present and future in His heart and mind.  Perhaps that is what helped him endure as Hebrews notes: "Who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now set down, "finished".  The joy of relationship building, bridge building and nurturing a connection internal and eternal with God was so the focus of Jesus He lived, lives, and lives in all who follow the Jesus way.

The Jesus way is being with people in their journey wherever they are  in the at journey without judgment, without conditions and without an agenda except that they know and experience the loving presence of the God of love.  Taking that in, they receive the love of God in Christ.

What was finished for me the day I crossed the finish line at the marathon was being with people in that way at that time.  But I was not finished.  It, that phase of my journey, was finished.  In a sense I was taking all I learned about being with people into being with people with renewed understanding of why is si so the Jesus Way.  My wife and I went on the following Sunday to Castle Island in Boston to do the ALS Walk with a friend.  To just be with him and his family and friends is the Jesus Way.  The Rabbi is still teaching us a new and different way.

When Jesus said "It is finished" he was saying among other things that the physical journey on and in this physical world where he modeled living in peace and love with clarity and compassion was done.  The living in peace and love was and ever shall be.  God continues through the Spirit and through Jesus to live in people and to be with people through and with people.  He is the resurrection and the life, whoever lives and believes in him will never be finished.

I am a finisher but I am not finished.  Jesus finished his work on earth but He id far from finished working in the realm of the spirit.  Listen to his voice through people, through nature, through scripture and live as Jesus lived.  That was a message I go this year and it made the marathon the best ever!

In the name of the "I with be with you God", be with people in peace and love and God will bless you and them.

I am finished.