I have written several blogs on older people still actively following Jesus and ministering to others, in short, people who are finishing well. The stories are worth a review if you want to be inspired:
My friend Ray Bandi (someone else who is finishing well!) asked how someone I had discipled years ago was doing. I had to say, “He didn’t finish as well as I would have wanted.” This happens, and Jesus was clear on that score:
The worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. (Mark 4.19, NIV)
Ray responded, quoting his mentor, well-known Navigator, the late Leroy Eims:
It is hard to make it over the long-haul. Someone once asked LeRoy, “How do you make it over the long-haul?” LeRoy answered, “Make it over the short-haul.” It takes a lot of daily decisions.
The writer of Hebrews was clear:
But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” (Hebrews 3.13 – 15, ESV)
The Apostle Paul finished well, but not all of his men did:
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith…Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. (2 Timothy 4.7, 10)