“There is nothing new under the sun,” Ecclesiastes says. That’s because we humans have always been on the same journey.  John Bunyan wrote his classic, The Pilgrim’s Progress, about 350 years ago, yet what he describes is as modern as high speed internet.

Bunyan became a Christian as an adult and began to preach. But preaching outside the Church of England was illegal (religious freedom is a fragile thing).  He spent 12 years in jail because he refused to conform.  While incarcerated he wrote the famous manuscript, a book now translated into over 200 languages.

Pilgrim leaves the City of Destruction carrying a heavy burden. Evangelist urged him to follow the light to the narrow wicket gate.  Worldly Wiseman re-directed him to the village of Morality to seek a man named Legality.  This diversion worsened his misery.  Evangelist found him again and explained that Wiseman “favors only the doctrine of this world (therefore he always goes to the town of Morality to church) and partly because he loves that doctrine best, for it saves him from the cross.  This Legality is not able to set you free from your burden.”

Pilgrim finally passed through the gate and found the way. “He ran thus til he came at a place somewhat ascending, and upon that place stood a cross, and a little below in the bottom, a sepulcher.  His burden loosed from off his shoulders, and fell from off his back, and began to tumble til it came to the mouth of the sepulcher where it fell in.”  The pilgrim, called Christian, gave three leaps of joy, saying, “Blest cross!  Blest sepulcher! Blest rather be, the Man that there was put to shame for me.”

Legalism and moralism are no substitute for God’s saving grace. If living by a code or turning over a new leaf could suffice, no cross and no Savior are needed.  Relying on one’s own truth or effort to achieve spirituality is as modern as it is ancient.  The Bible says, “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified” (Gal 2:16).

Bunyan offers an invitation. “This book will make a traveler of thee; if by its counsel though wilt ruled be.  It will direct thee to the Holy Land, if thou wilt its directions understand.”  Jesus gave us pilgrims this travel guide: “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness but will have the Light of life” (John 8:12).  Are you making progress that way?

A statesman from Georgia and a Civil War general from Virginia shared something in common even though their time on this earth was separated by six decades. They finished strong.

Robert E. Lee said “I would rather die a thousand deaths” than meet with Ulysses S. Grant to surrender his army. Yet he did, and arguably preserved the lives of thousands in doing so.  During the five years he lived after Appomattox, he rejected calls for former Confederates to press an insurgency against the Union.  He signed an oath of allegiance to the U.S., and became president of Washington College in Lexington, Virginia.  He wrote, “I think it is the duty of every citizen, in the present condition of the country, to do all in his power to aid in the restoration of peace and harmony.”

I read Charles Flood’s book, “Lee the Last Years,” while Zell Miller was Georgia’s U.S. Senator. Like Lee, in his final years he put statesmanship above previous allegiances for the good of his fellow citizens.  In his iron-fisted speech at a political convention in 2004, he excoriated his own party’s candidate for weakening our country’s defenses.  After listing votes against various weapons, he thundered, “This is the man who wants to be commander in Chief of our U.S. Armed Forces?  Forces armed with what?  Spitballs?”  Fearless!

After Mr. Miller retired (again) I wrote to thank him for his service and mention my observation. He responded, “General Lee is one of my greatest heroes and to be even mentioned in the same letter is overwhelming.”  I’m honored that he took the time.

The Christian faith has something to say about finishing strong. You may not be a general or a senator, but God has prepared something for you to do (Eph. 2:10).  In Christ, God gives you a purpose for a lifetime.  “There is nothing better for (people) than to rejoice and to do good in one’s lifetime; moreover, that every man who eats and drinks sees good in all his labor – it is the gift of God.” (Ecc. 3:12-13).

To hear and understand God’s Word is to plant a seed in fruitful soil protected from the pathogens of affliction, worry, or wealth (Matt. 13). This truth has no expiration date: “It is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13).  It is authentic faith that embraces Christ’s work on the cross in the past, His work in you today, and His plans for your future.

Paul wrote in his last letter, “The time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith” (2 Tim. 4:6-7).  A lifetime of serving others, living purposefully, and trusting God is the life that finishes strong.