MINISTERS MUSINGS

MAY 2006 MUSING

Life is a Marathon

Country lanes, cycle tracks, public footpaths, city pavements are all sprouting crops of joggers. This is the height of the marathon season. Runners come in all ages and sizes, but all have the same determined long -distance look in their eyes as they press on with elbows flailing and trainers pounding the ground. There are those who a few years ago would have quailed at the thought of walking five miles who doggedly train and enter and finish a gruelling course of over 26 miles. There is the challenge of competing with thousands of others and raising money for good causes. The objective is not to win but to complete the course.

The marathon originated in 490 BC when Phaedippides, a Greek Olympic athlete ran 26miles from the plains of Marathon to Athens to carry the good news of the victory of the Athenians over the Persian army. He rather overdid it because he just gasped out the good news, then collapsed and died! For us the focal point is the London Marathon, a measured distance of 26 miles and 385 yards. The extra yards were added in 1908 at the London Olympics. The race started at Windsor Castle and it was realised that the finish would fall short of the Royal Box in the Olympic stadium. The extra yards ensured that Edward V11th was able to see the end of the race. The extra yards have remained as the official distance ever since. The exact distance in the London Marathon is measured by a blue line painted on the road from start to finish.

St Paul was very interested in athletics and in his writings refers to the Christian life as preparing for and running a race. He wrote to Timothy (and to us) ‘run your best in the race of faith and win eternal life for yourself’. At the end of his life he wrote to him ‘I have done my best in the race. I have run the full distance and I have kept the faith,’ This surely sums up the true purpose of our lives, to enter the race of faith, follow the blue line of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, run the full distance and end up at the ‘Royal Box ‘ of the King of Kings. That way we can all be winners.