[Your blogger friend returns. The past week has been tied up with caring for a brother who had two procedures that impacted his life ... his heart. Thankfully these necessary actions have given him an assurance of longer life. It is my hope for him that he will now become much like St Paul and the message he passes on to us in his writing we hear or read today, 2 Tm 4:6-8, 16-18.]
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Each day most daily papers publish the summary story of so many men and women. You will find these stories in the obituary section of your paper. This is what you find in the Ephesians letter today. Paul is writing his own final chapter of his life: I have competed well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith. These are the words of a man who has completed much in a lifetime that scholars guesstimate to have end in its sixth decade. His words indicate that life is a struggle. He did fight the good fight. For Paul, life was a spiritual engagement between what God wanted of him and his own wants. But he make it clear that to live a good life is to know real struggle.
Paul also suggests that a life well lived is a life that has its moments of purpose. In our times it seems that money, popularity, prestige and power are the goals of so many lives. For Paul these were realities that made life a struggle. For this man who composed more than half of the New Testament genuine success was not winning the race. No, his success was in finishing the race. Success for this missionary of extraordinary feats was simple but a challenge: he felt that he had accomplished what God wanted him to do, to be. He heard his mission from God and did all that he could possibly do to make it real in his lifetime.
Lastly, we can see in Paul's life that a good life is informed by faithfulness. Paul wrote that "I have kept the faith." For this dedicated follower of Jesus Christ a good life was one that kept integrity intact, maintain his honor purely, and nurtured a soul what was sound. For him success was not money, popularity, prestige or power. Success for him was to have lived he lived well in relationship with Jesus Christ.
Truly, as followers of Jesus Christ, it is no different for us today.
