Enduring grace
When life is hard, when we feel we cannot fight anymore, where does the strength come from? When we hurt and the world tells us to say down how do we get up? How do we just do it? The answer is grace, empowering , enduring grace!
Derek Redmond is an example of enduring grace. Derek is an Olympic runner and a good one. In 1988 he made it to the Seoul Olympics but just 10 minutes before he was due to race injury forced him to back out. Four years and eight operations later he was in Barcelona and favored to win the 400meters. Yet while running in a semi-final heat Derek heard something pop as he felt sharp pain run up his leg. Hurt and watching his hopes and dreams run away before him, he made a choice that now defines him. Here is a clip of the race.
In his moment of truth, He got up and continued on! In His words,
Everything I had worked for was finished. I hated everybody. I hated the world. I hated hamstrings. I hated it all. I felt so bitter that I was injured again. I told myself I had to finish. I kept hopping round. Then, with 100 metres to go, I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was my old man.”
Jim Redmond Derek’s father, wearing a T-shirt that asked “Have You Hugged Your Foot Today?”, runs on to the track,. He slows his son back to a hobble and throws a supportive arm around him. As Redmond is helped down the home stretch of the track, he begins to cry. In Derek’s words, “It was the last thing I was expecting. … I told him just to help me get back into my correct lane. ... He said, We would finish the race together.”
They finished together a hurt and fallen child leaning on the strength and love of His Father. That is a picture of enduing grace.
So What Of Courage
Some may ask but wasn’t Derek courageous? What of his personal courage? It is true he was courageous but not the courage born of self-sufficiency. The courage Derek shows us rises from humility. It is courage not to give up because it is courage to let yourself be helped. It is the courage to receive. Such courage understands the helplessness of doing it alone and thankfully receives the grace to make it one more step. Four thoughts come to mind.
1. Courage is found in humility. It takes great courage to look honesty at yourself. The courage to stand before our Majestic Father, in the light of his holiness and see who we are in his light takes courage.
2. Such courage is embodied in dependence on one who will see us through all the way to the end. Any time we fall me must get up. To continue on in grace is courageous given the epic nature of our sin and his holiness.. It is courageous trust in enduring grace to walk away from where we have fallen because the blood has changed us and we believe that sin’s presence may plague us but its power has no hold in God’s forgiving grace.
3. Humility is the poster and power of enduring grace. Many people live life with hands full of stuff or clinched in defiance; humility is the poser of open hands and a clean heart. Such a poster places us in a position to receive from God.
4. The embodying of such grace is not lost on the observers of it. Such enduring grace inspires and changes those around us. Prior the 1992 Olympics, Redmond had a hostile relationship with fellow British runner Linford Christie, the 100 meter gold medal winner. The two athletes criticized each other publicly, and Redmond was quoted to comment on Christie as "He's a well-balanced athlete; he has a chip on both shoulders" But as Redmond was leaving the field after his heroic semi-final race, he was approached by Christie. The two men embraced and cried together. "He has a heart," Redmond said. "I've changed my views of him completely."
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