The 1960 Olympic marathon in Rome started at 5:30 in the evening and finished in the dark, with torches lighting the ancient streets. One of the runners was an Ethiopian named Abebe Bikila, and he was running barefoot. By 20 kilometers, he and Morocco’s Rhadi Ben Abdesselam had taken the lead, and they ran side by side for miles. About 500 meters from the finish, on the torchlit way, Bikila finally pulled away and won by 25 seconds. He crossed the line under the Arch of Constantine. People expected the favorite to win, not an unknown runner without shoes. You do not need the best equipment to finish the race God set before you. You need to keep running.
In 1938 Karoly Takacs was a sergeant in the Hungarian Army and a member of his country’s world champion pistol team. During an army exercise a grenade exploded in his right hand, his shooting hand, and shattered it. While recovering in the hospital he decided to teach himself to shoot with his left hand. Within a year he had won the national title. In 1948, at age 38, he made the Olympics in London. The world record holder, Carlos Enrique Diaz Saenz Valiente of Argentina, was surprised to see him and asked why he was there. Takacs said, “I’m here to learn.” He won gold and broke the record. On the podium the Argentine told him, “You have learned enough.” Takacs defended his title four years later.
Malaria is caused by a tiny parasite spread by mosquitoes, and it has killed millions over the centuries. In the 1970s a Chinese scientist named Tu Youyou took an unusual approach. Instead of starting from scratch, she studied traditional herbal medicines. Her search led her to sweet wormwood, and from it she managed to extract a substance called artemisinin, which attacks the malaria parasite. Drugs based on artemisinin have helped millions of people survive and recover. In 2015 she shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Sometimes the answer we need is not something brand new. It has been there for a long time, waiting for someone humble enough to look. God’s Word is like that for a searching heart.
On March 4, 1865, with the Civil War nearly over, Abraham Lincoln gave his second inaugural address. Instead of gloating, he spoke of both sides humbly. He said both read the same Bible and prayed to the same God, and each invoked His aid against the other. He added, “let us judge not that we be not judged.” Then came his famous closing: “With malice toward none; with charity for all,” let us strive “to bind up the nation’s wounds.” A witness said the sun broke through the clouds as Lincoln stepped forward. Only weeks later, he was assassinated. Winning is not the goal. Healing is.
In 1809 in western Pennsylvania, Thomas Campbell was trying to explain to friends how Christians could stop dividing. He offered a simple rule: “Where the Scriptures speak, we speak; where the Scriptures are silent, we are silent.” A man named Andrew Munro saw right away where that might lead and said it would be an end of infant baptism. Another friend, Acheson, was moved to tears. That August they formed the Christian Association of Washington, and Campbell soon wrote his Declaration and Address. Those few words still challenge us. Speak boldly where God has spoken, and stay humble where He hasn’t.
