Dear Daughters,
The Olympics are over (sigh). So I guess I won’t be watching TV for another two years when the Winter Games return. As you know my typical TV viewing is rather rare, but I do love watching the Olympics.
One of my favorite events, next to gymnastics, is the women’s 4 x 100 relay, simply because of the history of team USA.
At Athens in 2004, the USA women’s team failed to pass the baton within the 20- meter exchange zone so was disqualified, no second chance.
During the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, both the USA men’s and women’s relay teams were plagued by baton drops and, of course, were disqualified yet again.
Finally, at the 2012 games in London the American women ran the relay beautifully and captured the Gold Medal.
The 2016 women’s 4 x 100 meter relay was fascinating. In an unusual race, the Brazilians were disqualified when one of their runners ran into Allyson Felix’s lane during the baton exchange, causing the US to drop the baton and lose the prelims.
Amazingly, the U.S. was given a second chance to qualify for the finals, running the race all alone on the track. Qualify they did, even though they had to run the finals in lane 1, the least desirable of all lanes. But…they came back and won the Gold.
Every one of those women on the earlier disqualified teams were champions in their own right: Marion Jones, Lauren Williams, Allyson Felix, English Gardener…. Yet, it is never one person alone who is able to win a relay.
The clincher is always the handoff of the baton.
All these interesting years of relays got me thinking about a talk that Christine Caine gave a few years back.
Christine mentioned the saddest verse in the Bible, Judges 2:10. This verse was written at a time in Israeli history when Joshua had just died. Joshua, the guy who led the army around Jericho and watched the walls fall down. Joshua, who was in the minority to believe that God would lead them into the promised land. Joshua, who saw the Red Sea part. He watched the Jordan River stop flowing long enough to let thousands of Israelites walk through on dry land. He asked God to stop the sun from going down for an extra 24 hours – and it did. Joshua, who ate the manna and the quail that God miraculously provided for his people for 40 years, saw water come out of a rock, who had an entire book of the Bible named after him, and the stories go on and on.
Yet, just after Joshua died, the next verse says:
After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the Lord, nor what He had done for Israel.
Joshua was an amazing, incredible leader and man of God, but he and the others didn’t pass the baton on to the next generation, the reason this verse is so sad.
How could an entire generation immediately after Joshua, not know the Lord or what He had done for Israel? They had been children when all those miracles happened, but perhaps it had just become normal to have manna on the ground every morning. It was an everyday occurrence to see victory after victory when Joshua was leading them.
Just like the sprinters in the Olympics, each one of those runners are amazing and incredible in their own right, but when they run a relay the most important act is passing the baton from one runner to the next.
We can look at our own lives as a divine relay, not an individual sprint. Each one of us is gifted and talented, but the most important detail is not only that we run our leg with integrity, but that we pass the baton of faith on to the next generation. There can be no egos in a relay, unity is the bottom line.
When a sprinter enters the 20-meter hand off zone, the runner coming in must slow down because the runner going out is just accelerating. We too, in the midst of our individual sprint must slow down and talk to the next generation about Jesus Christ and the larger story in which we live.
This life is not just about us. We have Jesus and a whole crowd of witnesses cheering us on, encouraging us to model in our everyday lives selfless living, devoting our hearts to our Creator God, and learning to listen for His voice everyday of our life.
We are living in a much bigger story than our day to day frustrations, a bad hair day, annoyances of our husbands, worries about what people think about us.
Every action that puts others first, every prayer we pray for our enemies, every compassionate word of forgiveness that we speak, is working out God’s plan for the ages. Our words and actions, especially to those younger than us, are how we pass the baton to future generations.
I admit that when I was younger and you girls were at home, I often let my preoccupation with teaching other children take precedence over my teaching to you about the kind and marvelous God we serve.
I sometimes think God has given me a second chance, just as the 4 x 100 relay team was granted another run in order to participate in the finals.
I pray that you will not make that same mistake as I. Speak to those younger than you about the unending grace of Jesus Christ. Tell your stories of God’s love and faithfulness in your own lives. Let them know that even when we fail, He is strong and loves us still. Let them know that when we think there is no forgiveness for our past, our God is the God of second chances (and third and fourth…)
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders, and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance, the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who through the joy set before him, endured the cross, scorning its shame…so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
Hebrews 12:1-2
Love, Mom
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