“Lessons From An Olympic Runner”

Religion in Daily Life By the Rev. Edward Chinn, D.Min. Rector, All Saints’ Church 9601 Frankford Ave. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19114 (215) 637-5225 Written 17 September 2000

As we watch the Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, remember John Akhwari. He represented Tanzania and ran the Marathon in the 1968 Games in Mexico. John stumbled, fell and injured his knee and ankle. By 7 p.m. an Ethiopian runner won the race. With only a few thousand fans left in the stadium, John Akhwari limped through the gate. He wore a bloody bandage. He explained to reporters: “My country did not send me 7,000 miles to begin a race; they sent me to finish the race.” John teaches us to get up again: “Even if good people fall seven times, they will get back up” (Proverbs 24:16). He teaches us to keep going: “Let us run with determination the race that lies before us” (Hebrews 12:1).

In work, people have gotten up and kept going. Mahatma Gandhi fell flat on his face as a lawyer. He got up and became the champion of India’s independence from British rule. James Whistler wanted to be a soldier, but he fell flat in chemistry at West Point. He got up and became a famous artist. William Levine fell flat when he tried to run a butcher shop in Brooklyn. Robbers hit his store four times in a month. He got up from those assaults and bought a bulletproof vest in 1980. Other storeowners asked him for vests. Now he is the full-time president of Body Armor, International.

In friendships, people fall, get up and go on. Jesus of Nazareth had a close friend named Simon. Jesus gave him the nickname “Rocky” (Peter). Despite his boasts of loyalty, however, Rocky fell flat on his face when Jesus was arrested. Worrying about saving his own skin, Rocky looked more like a “Sandy”-an unstable pile of sand. Nevertheless, Peter got up and kept going. This is where Peter differed from Judas. Both let their friend Jesus down. Peter swallowed his pride and Jesus accepted him back as a friend and fellow-worker. Judas fell into despair, gave up on himself (and on God’s mercy) and committed suicide.

Why did Peter think he could get up and go on? Maybe it was because Peter had seen Jesus deal with Peter’s mother-in-law. She had fallen into a fever, but “Jesus went to her, gripped her by the hand, and lifted her up” (Mark 1:31). Religion in Jesus’ day gave people a load of laws that got them down (Matthew 23:4). Jesus gave people a lift and a chance to begin again. As Mary Pickford said, “This thing that we call ‘failure’ is not the falling down, but the staying down.”

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