Talk: Marathon

Marathon

An example of the narrative approach to evangelism
by Graeme Codrington

Well, this reminds me of another occasion when this sort of thing happened. Before we talk about that, though, do any of you run in athletics? Do any of you do log distance? Find out the longest distance. Have any of you ever tried a marathon? How long is a marathon? 22 miles. Where does that distance come from?

Pheidippedes was a Greek man, involved in a war in 490BC. The Greeks were fighting against the Phoenicians. The battle took place on a plain, in and around a small town some distance from Athens. The Greeks eventually won the war, and it was imperative for the news of this to get back to Athens. Pheidippedes ran the whole way from his home town of Marathon, where the battle had taken place, to Athens, 22 miles away. He gave them the news of the victory and dropped dead. It was that distance that was used at every Ancient Olympics as a long distance race. We don't know his time, unfortunately, so we can't compare it to today.

The Apostle Paul, when he was writing his New Testament letters, knew all about the Olympics and the demands of winning that marathon race. Unless everyone who ran it wanted to end up dead at the end, they had to prepare properly and run properly. Paul used this picture often in the Bible - the picture of an athlete. One place is in Philippians 3:13-14, But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (NIV)

Paul starts by talking of his preparation: One thing I do. He focuses totally on his task. You can't win a marathon by training for discus or volleyball. You have to put other interests aside, and focus on the task of training for the run.

I was a scout for about two weeks. We were practising for the Kontiki (a raft race, where the scout troops build rafts, sail them and live on them for a period of time), and once we had built our raft, and dragged it into the water, my task was to push the raft off from the pier. I put one leg on the raft and pushed. Unfortunately, I didn't take my leg off the pier. I ended up with one leg on the pier and another on the raft as it moved away. I had about 4 seconds to decide, and I didn't do it in time. I ended up in the water - very embarrassed - too embarrassed to go back to scouts, ever!!

The problem was that I had a foot in two places, which were moving apart. We often do this as Christians. We have one foot in the Christian world and our other foot in the world outside of Christ. When we're with our Christian friends, we do things the Christian way, but when we're with our other friends, we do it their way. You can't carry on doing that forever. You will eventually be split and embarrass yourself in front of one or the other, or both groups. You MUST decide. You can only do ONE thing.

Paul goes on to say that he forgets what is behind. In the race of life, some of you have a tough time running. There are tough things in your past. Maybe this is something someone did to you - your parents, your friends, your family, your school; or maybe it is something you did yourself, some mistake or mess up. You need to take the time to stop and bury that thing that is messing you up. The problem is that if we rush the burial, you can bury your problems alive and they will come back to haunt you. You may need help to deal with things from your past, but you need to do it. You cannot run a good race of life with all sorts of unwanted baggage weighing you down. Remember that God offers you complete forgiveness, regardless of what it is. He also offers to help you forgive others as well. If you need help doing this, please speak to a leader - we would love to help you deal with this, and bury past problems.

Remember that you are not a product of your past. You are a product of your future. If you were a product of your past, you wouldn't stand a chance, because you can't change anything about your past. But you can change your future - if you want to!!

Paul made the most of his future by straining towards what is ahead to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Paul single-mindedly dedicated himself to running the race. In modern mega-marathons, like the Boston marathon or the London marathon, or ultra-marathons like the Comrades and Two Oceans, everyone who finishes gets a medal. People compete against themselves - but all are aiming to finish.

A great example is from the 1982 Boston marathon. Alberto Salazar had an incredible dual with some other runners, which pushed him to win the race in an amazing new record time of 2:08:51. He was brilliant!! But a few minutes behind him, coming in at 2:47, was Guy Gertsch, a Salt Lake City bus station ticket seller. His race was spectacular, because he ran with a broken leg. At the 7 mile mark, he felt a cramp in his leg, but decided to finish the race anyway, because he had trained so hard for it. After finishing the 22 mile race, he went to the medic tent, and after x-ray they discovered he had broken his leg at the 7 mile mark. His muscles had held the bone together and allowed him to finish.

He was so single-minded about finishing that his body wouldn't let anything stop him. He took risks, and pushed himself to the limit - but he got a medal for finishing at that Boston marathon.

We, too, must take risks. We take the risk that by deciding to live every part of our Christian lives as Christians, and not compromise when we are with non-Christian friends, we will be rejected by those friends. We must focus totally on our future in Christ, burying past hurt, and relying on God for the future. We must take risks and push ourselves spiritually, stretching our faith and our endurance. But it will all be worthwhile. We will win the prize of life. Our lives will be meaningful, and we will be called victors by God.

At the Comrades marathon in South Africa the State President hands out the medals. In the race of life, God hands out the medals - and it is his words we want to hear: "Well done. Well run".

The great thing to remember is that Jesus does not wait for us at the winning line. He runs with us. He is our coach, our pace maker, our running partner and our second. He supplies us with everything we need as we run the race. We must just trust him enough to let him do it all the time, and stick to the route he shows us.

This talk is an adaptation of the introduction to Duffy Robbins' (out of print) book, Going the Distance -How to Build Your Faith.