Good Guys Finish Last

We all know the old saying, "good guys finish last". Have you noticed people say this a lot when things don't favor the "good" guy? Not exactly sure where this started but I'm going to bet it wasn't a good guy who coined it. It is said with pity and is not meant as a compliment. This confuses me. 

Why is the fact that good guys finish last a bad thing?  We throw this phrase around with a tone of resentment and resignation, like being a good guy is a bad thing because you will never be first or as important as the "other" guy. You will never have the prime spot on the team or the job with the six figure income, all because you are a good guy and "good guys finish last". 

Let think about this for a minute or two. Our society does seem to reward those "other" guys. We all know them. They seem to be the ones who have it all.  The ones who will just as soon stab you in back as look at you to get what they want. The ones who skirt their responsibilities at every turn, leaving their jobs for others to do, yet once finished they scoop in to take the credit. Let something go wrong though and they are the first to throw the you under the Greyhound.  The ones who will say one thing but when pressed deny ever opening their mouths, leaving you to look like the Lone Ranger without Tonto much less Silver.  They seem to have sold their souls to get where they are cause they sure act like being ahead is more important than doing what's right.

These types of people always seem to come in first in life and at an initial glance, it seem so very unfair. I am here to tell you that is just simply not true. As someone who has watched her husband always be the good guy no matter who is watching or what the situation is, I can tell you it gets really old seeing him get kicked in the teeth time and time again. I have asked on more than one occasion why he just can't catch a break but then it occurred to me.

My Hoss is a Good Guy. He will always finish last. He will always be cleaning up someone else's mess, always helping someone who does not appreciate it, always taking crap for someone else's problems, and always giving when it is a hardship for him. It's just who he is and he is not alone. The world is just full good guys and for that fact I am so thankful! 

Being a good guy is not a bad thing. Its the most wonderful title in the world if you ask me. Know why? Because it means you win. Not matter what life throws at you, you win. It may seem that you spend your life coming in second to people are less than honorable but the real truth is that you aren't last, you finish it.  They burn out and are forgotten but you endure. You finish.

No matter what it is, you finish it. That is something to be in awe of. Life keeps throwing you to the ground but you just keep getting up and you keep going until you finish whatever it is that someone else started. Oh, they run ahead and leave destruction behind them but you come along and you fix the wake they caused. You fix the mess they leave as they hastily run through never thinking about who they step on in the process. You pick up the people they cast aside as they use them for stepping stones to the top. You pieced back together the broken parts. You are there to speak the truth when they tell lies or keep silent when they should have said something. You are the one who fixes it all. You do what they are not capable of doing. You finish.

I am reminded of this other Good Guy. He lived a long time ago, and he just never caught what the world considers "a break" but He was perfect. The Ultimate Good Guy. He came to cleaned up an entire world's worth of mess and what did he get for his trouble? Crucified, literally. He was hung on a cross and gave His life for people who did not deserve it. Like I said, the Ultimate Good Guy. 

He finished what the world started. Jesus didn't make the mess but He cleaned it up. There is nothing else to say except that while the other guys think they won that day, the simple truth is, they didn't. They don't win, ever.  Sadly, the same battle keeps playing out day after day in small ways all over the world. In homes, in churches, at work, at the store, everywhere. Satan can battle all he wants, in the End, God finishes and He wins. 

So the next time someone looks at you with raised eyebrows, shrugs their shoulders and says with a hint of sarcasm in their voice, "Well, you know what they say..Good guys finish last!" Just raise your head, spread a smile from one ear to the other and proclaim proudly "Yes They Do!" Be proud to be a Good Guy, you are in some amazing company!