FINISHING STRONG

 

For this post, I asked my grandson, David Comings, Jr. to comment on an event that, in my personal notebook of life lessons, demonstrates a mindset for which he has become, for me, a role model. The event he describes took place in the fall of 2021 – his Senior year in High School and his final, dreamed-of opportunity, to give his tennis team a first boys-state-qualifier in more than years at the conference tennis tournament. With great pleasure, may I present:

FINISHING STRONG

David H. Comings, Jr.

Picture yourself in this situation: you're in a tennis match you've worked years to get to, and, out of nowhere, your entire body starts to cramp. You’re faced with a tough decision. Do you keep going, and fight through this pain, or do you stop and retire from the match because of the cramps? With a quick look at this situation, there's no right answer to that question. If you choose to stop, everybody will understand because of the obvious pain you're in, but if you choose to keep going and fight through the pain, you may be able to hold your head higher when you look back on this spot in your life a couple of years down the road. You will have shown a characteristic that is sometimes hard to detect.

That characteristic is your ability to finish strong no matter the circumstances. Obviously, if you're in any kind of pain or discomfort you aren't going to be able to perform at your best as you would when you're healthy. So, finishing strong in this case would be by giving it whatever you have left to finish the match, no matter if you win or lose.

A tennis match is just that--in the long run--a tennis match; But the way you treat the smaller things in life will affect how you treat the bigger things. If you can finish strong in the little things, like the tennis match I described, or doing something productive the last 10 minutes of your work shift--instead of wandering around mindlessly just to waste the time and get out of there--it will better prepare you to finish strong in bigger more important situations.

Just like, in sports, where you do countless repetitions to get better, your mind and body also run-on repetitions. If you continually take the easy way out of stuff, or do something half-heartedly, you are training your mind and body to do that in all things. If you do the opposite of that approach, and train yourself to always give the extra effort and go the extra mile in every area of your life, it will make it so much easier to put that same effort all the time.

Things like that can't be done on your own though. You need God's help to be able do those things. Philippians 4:13 says, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me". If you go to God when you encounter situations where you find it hard to "finish strong," He will help you find that extra effort or motivation to keep going.

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Editor's Note: This fall semester David has entered his Freshman year at Crown College in St. Bonifacius MN. There he will continue to play tennis as he pursues the possibility of a career in sports management with a focus on coaching.