Finishing Well

Yesterday I went to church near my place. Actually, I planned to go to another one, but then I decided to choose the nearest church. 

And I believe God led me to the right one to recharge my soul.

The theme was "Finishing Well".

Some peoples went to the race, start it and never finish it. 

I have never heard about this before. Her name is Zoe Koplowitz, the slowest marathoners in New York Marathon. 

This is the news from http://www.nationalmssociety.org/online-community/personal-stories/zoe-koplowitz/index.aspx

National Ambassador Zoe Koplowitz is the award winning author of The Winning Spirit-Life Lessons Learned In Last Place, a noted motivational speaker, and she lives with the daily challenges of both multiple sclerosis and diabetes. Her thirty-three hour nine minute run in 2000 set a world record for the longest marathon in the history of women's running. Zoe's time for her 2007 anniversary run was twenty-eight hours and forty-five minutes.
As Zoe crossed the Marathon finish line in Central Park late Monday morning, more than twenty-six hours after Martin Lel and Paula Radcliffe, the male and female Marathon winners, she was greeted by countless fans from the Society, national and local media and other spectators. Stories about Zoe's inspiring achievements ran in nearly 100 print and broadcast media across the country.
Zoe's marathons have become a metaphor for self-acceptance and being a "participant" not an "observer" in your own life. Her transformational journey of the spirit has captured the imagination of hundreds of thousands of people all over the world, superseding the boundaries of race, class and economics. 

The other story was about John Stephen Akhwari.

 He was not the winner, but his journey to the finish line was controversial.

He was in pain because of the shoulder and leg injury at the 42 km from the marathon race at Mexico City, 1968. This story was taken from News.com.au.
 
http://www.news.com.au/sport/london-olympics/moment-15-giving-up-not-an-option-for-john-stephen-akhwari/story-fneq1gz2-1226423236715

 With his knee reportedly dislocated and heavily bleeding, his race should have ended there.
But instead it became one of the great tales of sporting courage.

Bravely, he continued running.
As his rivals crossed the line one by one, Akhwari remained out on the course, in pain, but determined to see out the race.
He did just that.
By the time he completed the race - at about 7pm Mexico time - he was more than an hour behind any of the other 57 competitors to have entered the Olympic stadium.
But the few thousand people who stayed behind to see him complete the race gave him an almighty cheer.
After the race, when asked why he had continued running, Akhwari had a simple answer: "My country did not send me 5000 miles just to start the race. They sent me to finish the race."
Eighteen other competitors pulled out of the 1968 Olympic marathon during the event.
Akhwari's inspirational effort earned him an invitation to the Sydney 2000 Games.

Saint Paul said so at 2 Timothy 4 : 7,  " I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith"

I really impressed with Akhwari's note. My country did not send me 5000 miles to start the race. They sent me to finish the race.

Can I someday said so, Jesus did not send me to born XX years to start the race of life. He sent me to finish it well.


*taken from the Sunday service, Dec 30th 2012, GII Hok Im Tong, ev. Christine*