My first three years of college, I ran cross country. I know that’s hard for you to believe, but I
did. We usually ran about three and a
half miles - 5k in today’s distances. I
never finished above tenth, but I always finished, just a personal goal of
mine. Ha, ha! I ran a race at covenant college, a course
unfamiliar to me. But I did well because
I had a runner from Covenant right behind me all the way. Throughout the race, he would get ahead of me
by a few steps, and then I would overtake him.
But he never fell very far behind me.
And somehow, I knew that he was pushing me rather than me pushing
him. And then, a hundred yards to the
finish line, he began his move. I did my
best to punch it out, but I just couldn’t keep up the pace. I had given just too much during the entire
race. So this unnamed runner from
Covenant College beat me by three steps.
I remember it clearly as if it were just yesterday. If at any time during the
three-and-a-half-mile race I would have gained four steps on him, I would have
beaten him in the end. But I
didn’t. And, I remember that race almost
every week. That was fifty-one years
ago. And that has been a reminder for me
for fifty-one years. Don’t let up; keep
up the pace; finish strong. Paul said in
II Timothy 4:7 & 8, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course,
I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of
righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day:
and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.”
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