We never know when this life will end. Our passing can come from a variety of issues and in unexpected ways. Some of us will live for many years. Others will die young, What we need to possess in the years of life we have been allotted is a willingness to keep fighting in faith until the end, wherever and whenever the end finally comes.

When Caleb came to Joshua, he appealed to him he said, “I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh Barnea to explore the land. And I brought him back a report according to my convictions, but my fellow Israelites who went up with me melted the hearts of the people in fear. I, however, followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly. So, on that day Moses swore to me, ‘The land on which your feet have walked will be your inheritance and that of your children forever because you have followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly’” (Joshua 14: 7-9).

Age wasn’t a hindrance to Caleb. It was fear, something Caleb did not allow to determine the course of his life. He followed God wholeheartedly from his youth into his later life. Hope marked Caleb’s life because he believed in God’s promises and that belief dispelled fear because Caleb’s conviction was placed in God, not his chronological age or any situation that he encountered. He was willing to take another lap of faith no matter what he faced.

Caleb finished his appeal to Joshua, “So, here I am today, eighty-five years old! I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out. I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then” (vs. 10-11). Caleb would someday face his last last lap of life. Like us, he would never know that lap would be his last one. Until then, he chose to live in faith, not fear.

Because none of us know what will be our last lap, we should run with the strength of Caleb, a strength empowered by hope and fearlessness. We should live as if our current lap of life might be our last one. The challenges that will appear on our last lap will have to yield to the vigor of our faith because our faith has been placed in God, not on any condition of life that appears as we race toward the finish line.