Nice Guys Always Finish Last

But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.
(Matthew 19:30 TNIV)

Recently, I was having a conversation with a friend and both of us realized that for the majority of our adult life (up to this point) we had worked hard. We’re both artists, so we’ve had seasons of day jobs, seasons of multiple part-time jobs…heck, both of us have had seasons where we are working a full-time “day job”, a couple part-time jobs and we’re trying to pursue our true passion, our artistic endeavors (mine being a pastor/musician and his being a sound engineering). Although most of our full-time and our part-time jobs were just a means to support our passion, we began to realize that regardless of what season it may be or may have been, with all our hard work there seemed to be an invisible ceiling to the amount of money we were able to make in one year. It’s not that we don’t want to make more money per year or that we do want to make more money per year, we both came to the realization that for whatever reason, we weren’t able to break past a certain yearly income bracket.

“What’s up with that?” I asked.

My friend replied, “I don’t know, I guess we should just come to terms with the fact that we are wired to make a certain amount of money per year, no more, no less.”

There was an awkward silence.

“No way…I’m not buying that.” I said.

There was another awkward silence.

With a little hesitation, he says “Buy it or not. Maybe that’s just the way it is.”

I left the conversation a little miffed and a little confused. Not at my friend and not at God. Maybe I was angry at life. I mean, we both have families; we both have 3 children; we both have mortgages and yet, our budget is month-to-month. Neither of us is afraid to roll up our sleeves and work. We’re not above working ANY kind of day job to support our family and what we believe our ‘calling’ is. Why such a struggle?

As I was thinking and taking a personal inventory I remembered something one of my college roommates used to say to me.

“Nice guys always finish last, Sergel…always.”

At the time, he was talking about my dating life, which you can probably surmise from his “wisdom” I was not really a dating Casanova nor was I ‘playa’ – I just loved drumming…more than anything; more than girls and at the time, more than God. Regardless, this statement was just floating around in my head.

“Nice guys finish last.”

I guess another way of stating this would be “idealists finish last.”

So, the questions start coming to me:

What is a nice guy?
Am I a nice guy?
Is being a nice guy sort of like being an idealist?
Am I an idealist?
Do I really want to finish first?
Is finishing last a bad thing, considering what Jesus taught?

There’s a part of me that feels justified in my questions and there is another part of me that feels shameful. My shame is parallel to the shame that the disciples may have felt after they were arguing about ‘which of them was considered to be greatest’ . (Luke 22:24 TNIV)

“For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves?” (Luke 22:27 TNIV)

Was Jesus an idealist?
Was Paul an idealist?
Was Mother Theresa an idealist?
Martin Luther King, Ghandi, JFK?

Did these historical figures finish last?
Did they ever struggle with the reality of balancing their passion, and their calling with balancing their check book?

Seriously, I know it may be a stretch, but you know what I’m saying. Deep down inside your soul you know that God designed you with a unique talent and ability and yet, that very talent or ability is breaking the bank. What’s up with that?

Outside the challenge of answering all these questions (as I think of more), there is the biting reality of trusting the God; the ‘biting’ reality of trusting the economy of God. It’s the reality that Paul faced in prison; the reality that Peter and John faced before the Sanhedrin and the reality that Jesus faced on the cross.

In an ideal world, artists would be able to live a life of constant creativity and be able to pay their bills with no problems. Maybe that’s the new Kingdom we can look forward to…the balance between idealism and the reality of paying our bills. Maybe that’s what is meant by “nice guys (idealists) finish last”. Maybe the ‘nice guys’ of this world do finish last. Maybe that’s because the new Kingdom – the balance between ideality and reality - is worth giving your current life for. You think?
My hope is for you and I to continue to trust in every aspect of God’s sovereignty, including His economy that the “last shall be first”. That we would be willing to give our entire lives to establishing the new Kingdom that Jesus gave His life for. That while we live in the real world, we create the ideal world.