What Kick?
Theme of the Week: Endurance Test
Tod Bolsinger
Thursday, November 3, 2005
 1 of 1
Key Bible Verse: For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ (Hebrews 3:14). Bonus Reading: Joshua 14:6-12
In the 1972 Munich Olympics, Dave Wottle, wearing his trademark baseball cap, was dead last in the 800-meter race. As the final lap around the track began, Wottle charged through the pack. "Watch out for the kick of Dave Wottle!" the TV announcer screamed. Wottle overtook the leaders in the last 20 meters and won the gold medal by three-tenths of a second!
Many think, That's exciting—that's how I want to run. It doesn't matter if I fall behind; I'll make it back with a big kick as everyone cheers me on. But in remarks at a prep-school chapel service in Chattanooga, Wottle set the record straight. "The other runners went out so fast at the beginning that they slowed down at the end; I was able to maintain the same pace that I started with. … Even though I looked like I was kicking on them, they were coming back to me." Wottle, one track expert explained, was "just maintaining in a dying field."
Endurance is maintaining our walk with Christ even when no one else is. In a society of flash-in-the-pan celebrities and trendy spirituality, endurance is putting our faith to work by showing up for Christ every day, in every circumstance until the race of life is done.
—Tod Bolsinger in Show Time
My Response: What adjustments would help me maintain even pacing for the long haul?
Thought to Apply: To become a champion, fight one more round.—JAMES CORBETT (world champion boxer)
Adapted from Show Time (Baker, 2004) by permission.
Copyright © 2005 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine. Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity. 1 of 1
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Thank you, Savior, for enduring all the way to the cross. Give me the stamina to be a finisher.
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