Teleo

It’s the end of the semester! The final stretch. I was watching TV this past Saturday as I was resting from the mission trip and caught one of my favorite funny movies Office Space. Thinking about this last stretch of the semester reminds me of one of my favorite scenes from the movie. The main character engages in a conversation with Jennifer Anniston that goes like this:
Joanna: So, where do you work, Peter?
Peter Gibbons: Initech.
Joanna: In... yeah, what do you do there?
Peter Gibbons: I sit in a cubicle and I update bank software for the 2000 switch.
Joanna: What's that?
Peter Gibbons: Well see, they wrote all this bank software, and, uh, to save space, they used two digits instead of four. So, like, 98 instead of 1998? Uh, so I go through these thousands of lines of code and, uh... it doesn't really matter. I uh, I don't like my job, and, uh, I don't think I'm gonna go anymore.
Joanna: You're just not gonna go?
Peter Gibbons: Yeah.
Joanna: Won't you get fired?
Peter Gibbons: I don't know, but I really don't like it, and, uh, I'm not gonna go.
Joanna: So you're gonna quit?
Peter Gibbons: Nuh-uh. Not really. Uh... I'm just gonna stop going.
Joanna: When did you decide all that?
Peter Gibbons: About an hour ago.
Joanna: An hour ago... so you're gonna get another job?
Peter Gibbons: I don't think I'd like another job.
Joanna: Well, what are you going to do about money and bills and...
Peter Gibbons: You know, I've never really liked paying bills. I don't think I'm gonna do that, either.

Sounds tempting doesn’t it!! Now I don’t want to get too “churchy” here and don’t want to invalidate those end of the school year feelings, but when I begin feeling this way I remember the Greek word teleo. The word means “end”, “finish”. Ironically enough, this is not a word that I learned in seminary. I actually learned it from one of the Kanakuk counselors while I was a camper there. Matt Houston (still at Kanakuk every summer) had twenty red shirts with the word teleo in white block letter made before the summer so that he could wear them every day. The shirts were a reminder to him to not grow weary, to finish strong, and the finish was as important if not more important than the beginning. Most importantly, however, was the fact that Jesus finished strong to the point of death. So, when he didn’t feel like he had the strength to go on, that he was sacrificing too much he remembered that God gave Jesus the strength to finish strong, even enduring death.

In 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 Paul writes, “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

The author of Hebrews 12:1-3 states, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

I know you are probably thinking to yourself, “OK aren’t those verses a little intense or overstated in light of finishing out a school year?” That may be half true, but how are we to apply those verses to our lives and to the “bigger, more important things” if we can’t live them in the day to day, semester to semester parts of our lives? Our lifetimes won’t reflect this way of living if our semesters, days, hours and even moments don't.

Be encouraged! Persevere! Be strong! Teleo!