Run No Matter What!

I enjoy watching track and field events.  Anticipation fills the air as runners step to “their marks” and prepare to run.  One of the exciting things about track and field events is the “unknown” drama of each competition.  You just don’t know how a race will end!

A couple of weeks ago, Riley Forehand, a young Christian teen who is a member of our congregation, gave fans, onlookers and contestants a reminder of just how resilient the human spirit can be. 

Riley is a freshman cross country runner.  He was scheduled to run in the District cross country meet two weeks ago.  As you can imagine he was very excited to be competing against upper classmen.  I joked with his mother a few weeks before the race that class rank doesn’t win races.  Come race time, it’s about sheer determination and stamina.  Let the seniors beware! 

The race was scheduled for 3.1 miles.  The first mile was smooth sailing.  But, then it happened.  Another runner stepped on Riley’s right heel causing his right shoe to come off.  Undaunted, Riley continued on…barefooted!  He completed the final two miles with one shoe.  How did it end?  He finished in twelfth place overall – as a freshman! – and helped his team qualify for the Regional round on November 3^rd.  Moreover, he finished the race posting his best time of the year (17:20 ...a 5:34 min/mile pace), with tears streaming down his face, and a bloody, cut up foot.  His team carried him off the field on their shoulders!

That’s what people saw.  What they didn’t see is this.  The night before Riley ran his District cross country meet his Grandpa wrote a message on a post-it-note and gave it to him for encouragement. He told Riley he would be praying for him and wished him all the best. Unbeknownst to anyone, Riley had folded the note and placed it in his left racing spike. (The shoe that did NOT get knocked off during he race). It was later, during a supper celebration, that Riley told his parents this story and read the note his Grandpa had written him. The note read:  “

        “…But they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with

           wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary" – Isaiah 40:31. 

Life is like that isn’t it?  Sometimes the unforeseen happens.  To borrow a piece from Riley’s experience….we lose a shoe.  We get down.  We wonder if we can continue on.  The setback becomes so great we aren’t sure if we should just quit and call it a day.   

But, isn’t it great to know that we serve a God who is near us every step of our respective journeys and who knows just what we need when we need it?  It is only as we stay in the race that we discover things about our faith and about God himself that come to us as blessings down the road. 

Father, you give us what we need in moments when we aren’t sure if we can put one foot in front of the other one.  Thank you for providing what we need.  Lift us up when we are weary and show us that the race is worth finishing no matter what.  Through Jesus who has run the race ahead of us….Amen

Randy Daugherty
Stephenville, Texas