Worth It

In 2008, Bryan Clay won the Olympic gold medal in the decathlon, arguably the most difficult athletic feat in the world.

“How did it feel to win the gold?” asked one reporter.

(Side note. Don’t you love the insightful questions reporters ask? I just want one athlete to say, “Terrible! I hate winning! I was so hoping to lose but, by golly, here we are.” Anyways, I digress.)

Clay said what you’d expect him to say. It was the moment he crossed the finish line.

Clay laid down on the track and closed his eyes.

As he did, he said it was as if he was seeing a slide show of his life. All these scenes were flashing through his head. Then it would stop on one and he’d think, “Oh yeah, that was worth it.” Fast forward again. Stop. “Oh yeah, that was worth it too.”

He lay there until the slide show ended and, once again, he was on the track having finished the race and claimed the gold.

“And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.” wrote the Apostle Paul. “We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.”

I don’t know what it will be like when we cross that finish line.

But if you get a chance to lie down on the track, remember those moments, those decisions, that wore you out and stretched you and almost made you quit.

I have no doubt that you too will be able to say, “Oh yeah, that was worth it.”

Keep running hard, my friends. It is worth it.

Run Your Race

There’s Usain Bolt and then there’s everyone else.

He claims nineteen Guinness World Records – second only to Michael Phelps in the sports arena. He holds eight Olympic Gold Medals and eleven World Championship golds.

When it comes to sprinting, Bolt is in his own class.

There was no doubt that he won the 200-meter dash in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

But there was a lot of doubt surrounding the silver and bronze medalists.

Churandy Martina – representing the Netherlands – took second. Wallace Spearman – representing America – took third.

Spearman, though, was immediately disqualified. Apparently, he stepped outside his lane.

The United States contested the call and meticulously reviewed the race footage.

As it turns out, Spearman did step outside is lane – but so did Martina. Both were disqualified and the silver and bronze medals when to, effectively, the fourth and fifth place contestants (both from the United States, as it happens).

That didn’t sit well with Shawn Crawford – the would-be silver medalist.

He gave his silver medal to Martina.

As Crawford put it, “If a guy is 10 meters in front of me, I don’t care if he stayed in the middle of his lane. He was going to beat me anyways. He didn’t impede anybody’s race.”

How many of us would do that?

It would have been so easy for Crawford to claim his medal on a technicality. He could have touted all the years he spent training and preparing for the Olympics. He could have argued that he deserved to take home the silver.

But Crawford wasn’t content with a participation trophy.

He didn’t lose because Spearman or Martina stepped out of their lanes. He lost because they were faster than he was.

Here’s the point.

I don’t care who you are or what you do. There will always be people more gifted than you.

Don’t delight in their stumbles. Don’t use their slip-ups to claim your medal.

Run with everything you have.

But don’t try to claim anyone else’s race as your own.

Run your race.