Finishing Strong

G o i n g t h e D i s t a n c e f o r Y o u r F a m i l y

Steve Farrar

Multnomah® Publishers Sisters, Oregon

finishing strong

published by Multnomah Publishers, Inc.

© 1995 by Steve Farrar

Cover image by Liz Von Hoene/Tony Stone Images

International Standard Book Number: 1-57673-726-8

Most Scripture quotations are from:

New American Standard Bible

© 1960, 1977 by the Lockman Foundation

Also quoted:

The Holy Bible, New International Version (niv)

© 1973, 1984 by International Bible Society,

used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House

The Living Bible (tlb)

© 1971 by Tyndale House Publishers

Chapter 8 appeared in

If I’m Not Tarzan, and My Wife Isn’t Jane,

Then What Are We Doing in the Jungle?

an earlier, now out-of-print book by the author.

Multnomah is a trademark of Multnomah Publishers, Inc.

and is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

The colophon is a trademark of Multnomah Publishers, Inc.

All Rights Reserved

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,or transmitted, in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical,photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without prior written permission.

For information:

Multnomah Publishers, Inc.

Post Office Box 1720

Sisters, Oregon 97759

To my brothers,

Mike Farrar

and

Jeff Farrar

We have been running this race together now for over forty years.

When one has tripped, there have been two to pick him up.

And that’s the best part of this race.

We’re running in it together.

We were given a great start.

Let’s have a strong finish.

Together.

Thank you for your encouragement.

It’s great to have brothers who are brothers.

Contents

Acknowledgments

Part I: The Priority of Finishing Strong

Chapter One One Out of Ten

Chapter Two Finishing So-So

Chapter Three Staying the Course

Part II: The Perils of Finishing Strong

Chapter Four Dry Shipwreck

Chapter Five The Status Brothers and Their Not-Quite-Right First Cousin, Pride

Chapter Six UnTeachable, UnAccountable, and UnAcceptable

Part III: The Prototypes of Finishing Strong

Chapter Seven Lousy Start, Strong Finish

Chapter Eight Failure That Equips You to Finish

Chapter Nine 156 Buck-Naked Miles to Bighorn

Chapter Ten A Vision for the Finish Line

Study Guide

Acknowledgments

Basketball, football, and baseball are team sports—and so is writing a book. And there are some valuable members of this team who should be specifically put into the spotlight.

Simply put, Larry Libby is a superb editor. This is our third project together, and once again, Larry showed his stuff. Thanks, Larry, for your tireless work and ceaseless encouragement.

Thanks also to David Kopp, who provided some very timely direction and focus! Way to go, Dave!

My brother-in-law, Bryan Owens, did a great job of overseeing the ministry side of things so that I could channel my energies into this book.

Thanks to Dr. Howard Hendricks for his willingness to plug in some significant data that enabled me to shape the central premise ...