Have you ever run one mile?  I did back when I was in high school, a half century ago.  As for a 5K, a half-marathon, or a marathon?  Nope, I’ve never been interested.  Walking is my favorite way to get from here to there. 

Amazingly, there is something called an Ultra-Marathon which is a 544 mile race!  In Australia that means running from Sydney to Melbourne – and typically includes 18 hours of running, 6 hours of sleeping – on repeat for 7 days.  They don’t measure this race in yards or miles, but in zip codes.

On the day of this race back in 1983, many strapping people under 30 lined up in their fancy Nikes and Adidas, ready to show their amazing endurance.  Along with these youngsters at the starting line stood 61-year-old Cliff Young in his Osh Gosh overalls and work boots with some galoshes – just in case it rained.

Cliff was a potato farmer and raised 2,000 head of sheep on the side.  Year after year he would round up the sheep, running miles and miles, often throughout the night.  He had often run 3 days and nights at a time, so he figured it’s only a few more days.

All the younger folks in the race blazed away from the finish line while Cliff started shuffling.  He was left in the dust as he shuffled along.  But at night when all the others were laying down to sleep for 6 hours, when the news cameras were turned off and the reporters in bed, Cliff kept on shuffling,

All through the black nights, Cliff kept on shuffling.  He had never heard about the conventional wisdom of running hard for 18 hours and sleeping 6.  The dark never slowed him down because he didn’t know he was supposed to stop, he just kept on shuffling and gradually he overcame the below 30 crowd in their $400 Nikes.

At the end of the race, Cliff Young came in first – a full 9 hours before the second-place runner crossed the finish line.  He was handed the prize, $10,000, but said he didn’t know there was a prize.  So as each runner after him crossed the line, he handed out some money to them because “they worked hard too.”  Cliff walked away with no money at all because he ran for the pure joy of running.

It’s less about speed and more about endurance. 

I wonder if we could live the Cliff Young Shuffle – and I don’t mean stay up for 6 days without sleep.  But perhaps adapting some everyday shuffling, slow but steady, kind of like the tortoise (of the story of him and the hare).

The same sure and steady rhythms, day in and day out – the making of the bed, followed by the opening of the Word, followed by the journaling of the heart, followed by the moving of the body – just this enduring shuffle of doing the next hard and holy small thing – will win everything in the end.                                                  Ann Voskamp

We could also call for help from our Friend, the Holy Spirit, who is always willing to give us the strength to keep on going, through the light and through the dark, through the gray days and the sunny, to persevere instead of giving up.

On my own, I would have given up years ago.  Life is hard and it’s not going to get any easier, but with promises like:

I will never leave you or forsake you

Lo, I am with you always

I have loved you with an everlasting love

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

how can I give up when I know that God walks before me and behind, to my left side and my right? 

When I remember the people who were heroes in the Bible had problems, I am encouraged.  Moses thought his life was just about over, but God brought him out of retirement at age 80 and called him to lead over a million Israelis through the desert.  David (after he was anointed King) was chased around by King Saul for 10 years, hiding in caves and running for his life.  Hoseas’s wife was a prostitute.  Amos’ only job had been a fig-tree pruner before he was called to be a prophet. Jeremiah suffered from depression, Thomas doubted, and Jonah ran away from God.  Abraham was a horrible liar and so was his child and grandchild.

These were all real people with real problems and real failures, just like you and me.  Yet because they continued to press on – doing the Cliff Young shuffle – they ran their race slow and steady, winning the race.

 It’s not our strength God’s looking for, but our surrender and trust in Him to provide the strength for our struggles which will never end until we take our last breath.

Hold on, press on, surrender your will to His, and you will end your race well, hearing those precious words,

Well done, good and faithful servant