[Faith-talk] {Spam?} The Last Runner

[Paul Smith]

Hello and greetings to you all once again on a Thursday.  I hope that 
your day is going well, by God's matchless grace and His providential care.

Since we are now enjoying the Olympics, and since this is a summertime 
story, I thought it would be very appropriate to post it.

The annual marathon in my town usually occurs during a heat wave.  My 
job was to follow behind the runners in an ambulance in case any of 
them needed medical attention.  The driver and I were in an 
air-conditioned ambulance behind approximately one hundred athletes 
waiting to hear the sharp crack of the starting gun.

"We're supposed to stay behind the last runner, so take it slowly," I 
said to the driver, Doug, as we began to creep forward.

"Let's just hope the last runner is fast!" he laughed.

As they began to pace themselves, the front runners started to 
disappear.  It was then that my eyes were drawn to the woman in blue 
silk running shorts and a baggy white T-shirt.

"Doug, look!" We knew we were already watching our "last runner." Her 
feet were turned in, yet her left knee was turned out.  Her legs were 
so crippled and bent that it seemed impossible for her to be able to 
walk, let alone run a marathon.  Doug and I watched in silence as she 
slowly moved forward.  We didn't say a thing.  We would move forward a 
little bit, then stop and wait for her to gain some distance.  Then 
we'd slowly move forward a little bit more.  As I watched her struggle 
to put one foot in front of the other, I found myself breathing for her 
and urging her forward.  I wanted her to stop, and at the same time I 
prayed that she wouldn't.

Finally, she was the only runner left in sight.  Tears streamed down my 
face as I sat on the edge of my seat and watched with awe, amazement 
and even reverence as she pushed forward with sheer determination 
through the last miles.  When the finish line came into sight, trash 
lay everywhere and the cheering crowds had long since gone home.  Yet, 
standing so straight and ever so proud waited a lone man.  He was 
holding one end of a ribbon of crepe paper tied to a post.  She slowly 
crossed through, leaving both ends of the paper fluttering behind her.

I do not know this woman's name, but that day she became a part of my 
life--a part I often depend on.  For her, it wasn't about beating the 
other runners or winning a trophy, it was about finishing what she had 
set out to do, no matter what.

When I think things are too difficult or too time-consuming, I get 
those "I-just-can't-do-its," and I think of the last runner.  Then I 
realize how easy the task before me really is.

This is just another story I'll be reading sometime tomorrow from noon 
to 1 PM on a radio show called "This and That" to be heard over the 
facilities of the Radio Reading Network of Maryland, online at
http://www.radioreadingnetwork.org
and locally over the 67 kHz signal over WBJC, the radio voice of 
Baltimore City Community College.

Whether you hear it read tomorrow or enjoyed it today, I pray that it 
was a blessing for you.

And that will do it for now.  Until tomorrow when, Lord willing another 
similar article will be posted, may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob 
just keep us safe, individually and collectively, in these last days in 
which we live.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul