I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. – 2 Timothy 4:7, KJV

The other day I received my daily edition of a technology email newsletter to which I subscribe. Embedded in the email was a link to a YouTube clip of a recent episode of America’s Got Talent. The clip featured the amazing act of 16-year-old magician Collins Key who wowed both the audience and the judges by “teleporting” a dollar bill into a sealed bag of popcorn several feet away. (To see this amazing clip, click here.) At the end of the clip, the young man teared up in response to the praises sent his way by both the judges and the audience. The scene was quite moving, and his tears were obviously tears of joy as a dream many years in the making was finally coming true.

Few people ever experience tears of joy akin to those that Collins Key shed. The reason? Few people know what it is like to work, fail, work, and fail again for years until finally, one day, success is achieved. We want success instantly, and we expect our rewards now. When neither success nor reward come quickly, we give up the pursuit of our goals, and those tears of joy that can only be found at the end of a long road of labor elude us.

For the Christian, there is only one goal worth pursuing, and that goal is to live a life pleasing to our Creator (see Revelation 4:11). Achieving this goal is hard work, and since hard work is foreign to most Christians, most Christians never experience the tears of joy that only hard work can produce.

When Paul wrote to Timothy that his life was at its end, Paul stated that, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.” (2 Timothy 4:7, KJV) Since his conversion, Paul had been earnestly pursuing the goal of living a life pleasing to his Lord, and that life was hard and painful. But I imagine that, as he approached the moment when Heaven would no longer be a promise but a reality, Paul shed a few tears of joy. He knew that the goal he had chased for so long – the goal of hearing his Savior say, “Well done, good and faithful servant…enter thou into the joy of thy Lord” (Matthew 25:23, KJV) – had been attained.

When we look at our lives – and when we look specifically at the work that God has given us to do – are we in a position to shed tears of joy in response to a life well-lived? Or, are we be better positioned to shed tears of shame? We are not all called to be Pauls, but we are all called to accomplish something specific for our Lord. If you know what your work is, get to it. If you don’t yet know, ask God to show you the work He has for you so that you can tackle the job sooner rather than later.

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