Utah State was leading Oregon 7-0 early in the second quarter on Saturday evening, November 8.  Utah’s quarterback dropped back and lofted the ball long to wide receiver Kaelin Clay who caught it wide open and ran untouched for a 78 yard touchdown.  Fans screamed.  The announcers were ecstatic.  It was perfect.   Beautiful!  One problem: the referee did not signal “touchdown.”

The ball lay on the one yard line where Clay had dropped it before crossing into the end zone.  Just dropped it.  Apparently forgetting that you actually have to carry the ball across the line to score.  Really, that’s not fair.  Clay knew that.  He was just not careful to make sure he had crossed the line before he dropped the ball in a gesture of triumph.

Alert Oregon players noticed what had happened and twenty seconds later Oregon’s Joe Walker had scooped the ball up, and surrounded by several Oregon players, was running the 99 yards to the opposite goal. Now the signal was raised and the score flashed onto the screen.  Not Utah 14, Oregon 0; but Oregon 6 (soon to be seven) and Utah 7.

The play was one of those “too weird to be missed” experiences that soon viraled across the internet.  Oregon went on to win the game 51-27.  But the crucial play, the momentum changer, the turn-around moment, was when one man did not bother to finish what he was charged to do.

Finishing well is what we are supposed to accomplish.  But many do not.  How many people nourish a good reputation until the last years of their lives, and then figure, “I have missed out on a lot of what life has to offer.  I’m going to grab what I want before it is too late”?  Or how many resist moral temptations  all their lives but then  stumble at the very end?  How many just grow tired and quit?  Or get careless before the finish?

Never quit until it’s really over.  The apostle Paul reached the end of his life languishing in the most notorious Roman prison.  He was facing public execution.  All the good he had done, all the brilliant broadcasting of the truth to an overwhelmingly pagan world, now was ending in public shame and popular condemnation. 

Earlier he had boldly declared, “Whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.” (Philippians 3:7) That’s the kind of thing you say when you are ascending, when you have a goal, when you decide that whatever sacrifice you must make to get across the line is worth it.

But that was then and this was now.  Paul was tired and hurting, old and discouraged, worn down and facing an ignominious end.  That’s the moment when “let down” can strike.  When you can drop the ball prematurely.  Or with overconfidence.  Did Paul?  In his last letter he wrote, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith.” (II Timothy 4:7)

The end was actually a few weeks off as he wrote those words, but Paul had the finish line clearly fixed in his view.  And when the executioner trudged to the dungeon door with his keys jangling and the axe or sword in his hand, Paul knew what the next step for him would be.  He wrote, “In the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but to all who have loved His appearing.” (v8)   It was worth it to hang on to the ball to the very end.

In this Paul was following Jesus who at the moment of his death called out from the cross, “It is finished!”  Finish.  That is the word.  Not almost.  Not to the one yard line.  But all the way.  Because the big “six” does not flash up on the scoreboard until that moment.  Dreaming is not enough.  Youthful anticipation will not accomplish it.  But making it all the way, crossing the line, striving until your last breath, until the job is truly done, until your responsibilities can with confidence be laid down.

Listen to the crowds who may cheer you on.  But do not allow their jubilation, their praises, the illusion of glory, to dwindle to the silent embarrassment of a life not fully lived.  Finish!

Dr. Rick Perrin is a minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and Chairman of the Board of World Reformed Fellowship..  He writes a weekly blog called ReTHINK which may be accessed at www.rethinkingnews.wordpress.com. He may be contacted directly at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..