Is This You?

He failed in business in ’32.

He ran as a state legislator and lost in ’32.

He tried business again in ’33 and failed again.

His sweetheart died in ’35.

He had a nervous breakdown in ’41.

He was defeated for the nomination to Congress in’43.

He was defeated again for Congress in’48.

He was defeated when he ran for the Senate in ’55.

He was defeated for the vice presidency of the United States in ’56.

He ran again for Senate in ’58 and lost.

Who is he?

Most of us would have kept going after the first failure. A group of us might have gone on even after the third, fourth, and fifth defeat. Very few individuals would keep going after the eighth or ninth. Where would you have stopped if this had been your life’s path?

Perseverance is defined as "determined continuation with something; steady and continued action or belief, usually over a long period and especially despite difficulties or setbacks." Have you heard the saying, “Keeping the faith?" Another way to word it is “not giving up regardless of what may happen.” It takes faith to persevere.

The individual’s life listed above had to have faith in something in order to keep going. Was his faith in himself or in something bigger? Could it have been his faith in believing that he had a destiny? I don’t know. But I do wonder what keeps a person going in the face of set-backs, failures, and defeats. What do you have faith in that keeps you on your path?

Philippians 3:13, in the New King James Version, says, “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead . . . “ Let’s look more closely at that statement. “Apprehended” is another way of saying to grasp. The Greek word used here is active. This isn’t just a one-time grab. It's active, and it means to seize or clutch, to clasp or embrace. Likewise, the apostle's statement, “But one thing I do," shows specific concentration and focus. As Goethe said, “When all is said, the greatest art is to limit and isolate oneself.” In the next phrase, “Forgetting those things which are behind,” we see a reminder that regardless of whether an experience is good, bad, or neutral, we should leave it behind and continually strive, or “reach forward.” Stretching forward evokes a mental picture of a runner leaning and reaching forward as he seeks to finish the race. It involves using every muscle in your body to achieve your goal; straining with your last ounce of energy.

Philippians 3:14 continues: “I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” I am pushing and crowding forward to reach the goal or cross the finish line with a prize in mind. Here is our motivation -- Jesus himself, whom we must continually focus upon as we run this race. The Greek for “high calling” literally means that we are to strive for the prize “of the upward calling.” “The goal continually moves forward as we press on, but yet it is never out of sight,” states Robertson's Word Pictures of the New Testament.

Hebrews 12:2 from The Message says it this way: “Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed - that exhilarating finish in and with God - he could put up with anything along the way: cross, shame, whatever. And now he's there, in the place of honor, right alongside God.”

May God give you that extra measure of perseverance when you need it so you can keep on keeping on the path He has you walking.

Now, can you guess who the person is with all the defeats listed at the beginning? Do you want to know if he kept going and never gave up? Well, I think you'll agree that he never quit. He kept trying until the very last.

In 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States.
Don’t you give up, either!

"Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal.
My strength lies solely in my tenacity."
~ Louis Pasteur

Are You Winning Your Race?

His left foot was fractured, but he ran anyway. He had to run. It was the last race in the last Olympics in which he would ever compete. Dave Johnson ran.

The stress fracture had happened a few months before the Barcelona, Spain Olympics in 1992. The hope was that if he stayed off it and didn’t practice it would get better and he would be able to compete. But the stress fracture became unbearable after the first day of the two-day Decathlon in Spain.

Dave had to complete the last of ten events, the 1500 meters, to medal. He put on a shoe two sizes larger, laced it up tight, and went to the starting line to run four laps. Dave told me that in the Decathlon, the competition comes down to the last lap on the last turn on the back side of the track in the last event. To further complicate matters, all your strength is gone after two days of all-out exertion.

Dave ran, forcing himself to put one step in front of the other, until he finished the race and won the bronze medal. He was the first American to medal in the Decathlon since Bruce Jenner had won a gold metal ten years earlier.
"If you doubt you can accomplish something, then you can't accomplish it. You have to have confidence in your ability, and then be tough enough to follow through." Rosalyn Smith Carter.
I had the privilege of knowing Dave Johnson during this period in his life. At that time, I lived in Southern California and worked at the church where Dave and his wife, Sherry, attended. The church's youth director was one of his training partners and my roommate dated another of Dave’s training partners. Terry, who was the track coach at Azusa Pacific University, where Dave attended and trained, also attended the church and was one of the elders.

Not long after I started working at the church I attended an after-church luncheon at Terry’s home. It was a beautiful Southern California day, so most of us were outside. I was sitting at a table with Terry, with my back to the some of the other tables. Terry began talking to someone at another table about a recent appearance on a talk show and some comments made by a sports announcer. That caught my attention.

After lunch, everyone just sat around and talked. I ended up sitting next to a very nice lady, just spending time getting to know her. During the course of our conversation, I noticed that she was wearing a lovely ring and she told me she had gotten it in Korea in 1988. (The Olympics had been held in Seoul, Korea in 1988). Perhaps I had been slow on the uptake, but now things began to add up. I took a closer look at this group of people and realized they were all in extremely great shape. Not just good – great! I asked my table companion, “Who are these people?”

As we talked, she began to point out different people; he is the world record holder in this event, he competed in the ’84 Olympics in Los Angeles, and he competed in ’88 in Seoul, and so on. To my surprise, I eventually learned that my friendly tablemate was none other than Sherry Johnson, the wife of Dave Johnson.

While this group of people was mostly world class athletics, they are also people just like you and me, with bills, fears, joys, friends, sorrows, etc. Dave would frequently say that anyone can train their body, but it’s the mental game where you win or lose. He had the chance to live out those words in 1992.

The lead-up to the ‘92 Barcelona Olympics was saturated with commercials from Reebok asking, “Who’s the World’s Greatest Athlete, Dan or Dave?” The Dan was Dan O’Brien, who went on to win a gold metal in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

But 1992 was a different story. After all the hype stirred up by the ad campaign, Dan didn’t even make the Olympic team. During the Olympic trials he willingly passed on the lower heights in the pole vault and then failed to clear the bar in the next round after his three tries. The result was that he did not receive any points for the event and failed to qualify for the Olympics. As a consequence, Reebok refocused the ads to rally support around Dave.

Steve Young says, “The principle is competing against yourself.” In spite of the hype, Dave was competing against himself as he began his last race with the goal to the finish. That race required him to place one painful step in front of the other to finish and medal in the Olympics. Where does that type of strength come from?

1 Corinthians 9:24-27 comes to my mind as a fitting passage:
Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.

And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown.

Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air.

But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.

In Paul's day, a laurel wreath of victory was awarded to the victors in a race. In the ancient Olympic Games the “crown” was made of branches of the wild olive tree, but these were corruptible crowns. Paul continues on in the passage illustrating his own behavior, using the example of a boxer. He does not punch at the air as a boxer hitting at the shadows, but with direction and determination he keeps his eye on the true prize.

Verse 27 “is like the horses in a chariot race, which must be kept well in hand by whip and rein if the prize is to be secured" (Robertson and Plummer). Paul’s body would not be his master. He worked towards self-discipline to “bring it into bondage.” Paul was determined to withstand the test and not be disqualified.

Are you winning your race?