31 March 2014

Finishing Your Race

This is an amazing story.

During the Beijing Paralympics, 100m track blind sprinter Elizabeth Clegg competed and won silver medal. A running guide accompanied her ensuring she doesn't veer out of her lane. Her running guide, Mikhail Huggins, runs alongside her and talks to her throughout the race. 

They each hold one end of a rubber tube so he can guide her and lead her to the finish line. The rules for Paralympics who have a blind disability for track events are that the running guide must let the athlete cross the finish line first. 



'You have to be completely in synch and get the start absolutely right,' she says of the relationship she has with Mikail. 'We’re kind of a team — wherever I go, he goes.' 'To execute the run properly you need to be smooth and in time, with both the pace and the stride length correct. Mikail and I need to communicate to make sure our performance is the best it can be. 'It's a team effort, it's not just me. I'm the one that has to cross the line first, but when I get medals I want Mikail to be with me because he helps me do it.' Mikhail in response says, 'I know that I'm Libby's guide, but we come as a team – if she loses, I lose, and if she wins, we win as a team.'

Elizabeth says, 'I have to trust Mikail because I am running at full pelt [blind],' she says. 'He talks throughout the race, indicating where we are in the bend, whether I need to accelerate or hold or relax and he always tells me to put my chin back in because I tend to push it out when I run. 'He definitely has the harder job. All I have to do is run, which is the easy part. He has to talk and run.'


Does this sound familiar? Similarly the Holy Spirit is our running guide, we run within our own lane by the Word of God, and looking to Jesus as our finish line. Your running guide is strong and faithful. And when you win, God wins!



Source: http://www.elizabethclegg.co.uk


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