Perfect Love Casts Out All Fear
Suddenly I'm awake at 4:32am. It's twenty-four hours before I run my first Half-Marathon, and I'm roused by a sharp pain in my leg. It's my hamstring and it feels as if I've just been stabbed in the middle of a peaceful nap. I can't fall back asleep, not because of the pain but because of the fear. Anxiety seeps into my mind at the thought of not being able to finish the race that I've trained and sacrificed for over the last 3 months. I'm frustrated and scared.
I lower myself down the ladder of my top bunk at 5:15am and descend the stairs into the dark hours of the morning and open my Bible to 1 John 4:18-19:
"There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love..."
All the while there is a picture in my mind that I cannot erase. It is the story of the British Olympian Derek Redmond and how love triumphed over fear and failings on a Spanish summer day. Redmond was a British runner who arrived at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, with his hopes set to win a medal in the 400 meter race. At the 1988 Games in Seoul, only 10 minutes before the race, he was forced to withdraw because of an Achilles tendon injury. He then underwent five surgeries over the next year. This was the same runner who had shattered the British 400-meter record at age 19. So when the 1992 Games arrived, this was his time, his moment, his stage, to show the world how good he was and who he was.
After winning the first two qualifying heats Redmond took to the blocks in the semi-final run. The gun fires and Redmond quickly takes the lead. Down the backstretch , only 175 meters away from finishing, Redmond is a shoo-in to make the finals . Suddenly, he hears a pop in his right hamstring. He pulls up lame, as if he had been shot. At the same time, Jim Redmond, seeing his son in trouble , races down from the top row of the stands, sidestepping people, bumping into others. He has no credential to be on the track, but all he thinks about is getting to his son, to help him up. "I wasn't going to be stopped by anyone" he later tells the media.* Watch what happens next:
Jesus loves us in the same way Jim Redmond loved his son. Nothing is able to stop our Father in heaven from throwing His arms around us as we hobble through life not understanding what all the pain and tears mean. He wants us to know that there is greater Joy in simply finishing the race than not stumbling once along the way. He wants us to know that there is more strength in our weakness rather than in ourselves. And He died for us to know that His love is perfect to cast out all fear and has given us victory through Jesus Christ as we press on towards the end.
*"Derek and Dad finish Olympic 400 Together." http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/espn25/story?page=moments/94, accessed 3/27/09
I lower myself down the ladder of my top bunk at 5:15am and descend the stairs into the dark hours of the morning and open my Bible to 1 John 4:18-19:
"There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love..."
All the while there is a picture in my mind that I cannot erase. It is the story of the British Olympian Derek Redmond and how love triumphed over fear and failings on a Spanish summer day. Redmond was a British runner who arrived at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, with his hopes set to win a medal in the 400 meter race. At the 1988 Games in Seoul, only 10 minutes before the race, he was forced to withdraw because of an Achilles tendon injury. He then underwent five surgeries over the next year. This was the same runner who had shattered the British 400-meter record at age 19. So when the 1992 Games arrived, this was his time, his moment, his stage, to show the world how good he was and who he was.
After winning the first two qualifying heats Redmond took to the blocks in the semi-final run. The gun fires and Redmond quickly takes the lead. Down the backstretch , only 175 meters away from finishing, Redmond is a shoo-in to make the finals . Suddenly, he hears a pop in his right hamstring. He pulls up lame, as if he had been shot. At the same time, Jim Redmond, seeing his son in trouble , races down from the top row of the stands, sidestepping people, bumping into others. He has no credential to be on the track, but all he thinks about is getting to his son, to help him up. "I wasn't going to be stopped by anyone" he later tells the media.* Watch what happens next:
Jesus loves us in the same way Jim Redmond loved his son. Nothing is able to stop our Father in heaven from throwing His arms around us as we hobble through life not understanding what all the pain and tears mean. He wants us to know that there is greater Joy in simply finishing the race than not stumbling once along the way. He wants us to know that there is more strength in our weakness rather than in ourselves. And He died for us to know that His love is perfect to cast out all fear and has given us victory through Jesus Christ as we press on towards the end.
*"Derek and Dad finish Olympic 400 Together." http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/espn25/story?page=moments/94, accessed 3/27/09
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