Running The Race of Life

There were only two of them in this race at the Special Olympics this past Saturday. One was my son Zachariah. He got a quick jump as the race started, and quickly was about 100 feet ahead. The other child got a slow start and didn’t seem to quite know what was happening at first.

I am thinking “He is gonna get the gold”, when all of a sudden Zach did something I would never have expected. He stopped running, turned around and waited excitedly for the other child to catch up with him. He then let him pass and followed along behind him for the silver.

He could have won the gold medal, but he chose companionship over competition, giving over getting, caring over crushing, enabling over defeating. Oh I know, you look at my son and you think he doesn’t have thoughts like that, his mind doesn’t work like ours. You’re right, his mind doesn’t work like ours, but he demonstrated something we know is better than winning, but are usually unwilling to do.

He cared about the other one running the race with him. He knew what the child was supposed to do, and purposely did his part in making sure it happened. He did not care if somebody else looked better than he did in the process. In the race of life we are all in, it is not about coming in first or second or even third. It is about finishing the race and helping those along side us finish the race also.

I don’t know if anyone else in the stands noticed what happened in that race Saturday morning, but it had the mark of eternity on it. The awards of this life will not carry over into the eternal, but the things that are marked by eternity will.

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. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. (1 Cor 9:24-25)