His name is Zach, and he loves to run. I mean he loves it. He ran cross country and track in high school. He studied runners like Usain Bolt and Zach Bitter, and started eyeing the pros.
His philosophy wasn’t to look at the greats and think he could never do what they did. Instead, he looked at them as human beings as he was, as having goals and simply training hard and going for it, and Zach saw no reason he couldn’t do that, too.
So on his high school graduation day Zach announced to his mom he wanted to run a 100-miler before he turned 20. He had ten months to train.
Zach was laser-focused on his goals. He began training with a coach and ran his first 5K, then a 10K, then a 26-mile marathon, and then a 50-mile ultramarathon.
Throughout the process fellow runners embraced him, encouraged him, and supported him every step of the way.
Finally, he was ready, heart, mind, and body. He signed up for the Coldwater Rumble ultramarathon. One hundred miles.
The runners gathered at sunrise. At 19, Zach was the youngest.
He ran throughout the day with only a few refueling pitstops along the way. He was tired, his body ached, and his feet were on fire, but he was determined to keep running.
His coach ran alongside him, encouraging him, and whenever he circled back around after another 25-mile lap, his cheering section was there to help him keep going. He finished lap 3 – 75 miles.
The trail was dark now. It was the middle of the night, but a secure headlamp lit his way.
By sunrise, Zach was dealing with a hip flexor strain that caused him to slow to a walk for a bit, but he stayed in the race. He was determined, and soon he picked up his pace again.
The sun was up, and while some runners had dropped out of the race, Zach neared the finish line with a smile on his face, his goal in sight, and his family and friends cheering him on.
At 28 hours, 6 minutes, and 36 seconds, he crossed the 100-mile mark. At 19, he was the youngest to ever finish the race.
Oh, did I mention Zach has autism?
Zach’s perceived weakness by some was in reality a strength. He’d always been very focused as a kid, and that focus helped him achieve a goal that, at his age, no one else had.
Though I’ll never be this kind of runner, every aspect of Zach’s story inspires me to keep running in the race I’m called to in Christ.
“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.”
1 Corinthians 9:24
Run in such a way…
We are to take our spiritual race seriously.
We may look at the so-called spiritual greats – Paul the apostle, who wrote much of the New Testament, John the apostle, who recorded words from the LORD Himself, George Müller, Jim and Elisabeth Elliot, Billy Graham, and countless others, and think we could never do what they did. But why not? They were human beings like we are, who simply had a strong faith in Jesus Christ that caused them to run their race in obedience.
Who knows what God may want to do through any of us? Any perceived or even actual weaknesses we have don’t need to limit us. If we let Him, God can use those weaknesses to be the very things that propel us forward because when we are weak, He is strong on our behalf.
Suffering may seem to be a weakness, but it is our training ground. As we look to Christ in and through it, He’ll teach us to persevere, to trust Him, to grow stronger in ways we never would have otherwise.
At times in our race, we’ll need to sit down and rest, or we may even fall. It’s okay. We all do at one time or another. Get back up and keep walking, keep running.
And we need to cheer one another on to victory. There are times the most discouraging thing is not the world, it’s not the fall, it’s not the suffering. Sometimes the most discouraging thing is not being supported and encouraged (or even actively discouraged) by those who should be cheering the loudest.
In the spiritual race, we’re not running against each other. We are each running a unique race purposed just for us, but we are running together. Let’s be brothers and sisters who pick one another up, who take a hand, who pray and encourage and love as we watch one another run our races.
And no matter what, our Coach will always be by our side. He’ll run the race with us, giving us everything we need, and we can trust Him to never leave our side.
“Therefore…let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.”
Hebrews 12:1a-2
So, let’s put on and keep on the proper attire for our race – our spiritual armor, and our light – God’s Word, and keep running with our eyes on the prize of eternal life with Jesus Christ.
When he’d crossed the finish line, Zach said, with a smile, “I’m tired, but I’m happy. I finished the race.”
May we, too, say, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” 2 Timothy 4:7
And if you’ve never signed up for this race, you’ve never known Jesus Christ personally, the Bible says this: “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
If you believe that Jesus is who He said He is, that He is the Messiah, the Savior who came to die on the cross as payment for our sins, and you desire to put your faith in Him, to give your life to Him and begin following Him, just talk to God and let Him know. You can pray a prayer that goes something like this:
Dear God, please forgive me for my sins. I believe your Son Jesus died on the cross to pay for my sins and I accept His payment. Please come live in my heart and lead me in this race called life. I pray in Jesus’s name, amen.
If you have any questions please let me know. God bless you!
For Him,
Dorci
The story goes that in 1519 a Spanish explorer and soldier led an expedition in search of the conquest of Mexico. As he claimed authority over one piece of land, he ordered that his ships be burned to keep his men from retreating. (Although the truer story was probably that he had his ships sunk.)
