Remarkable

So, great news today: Great Britain have won the gold medal in eventing for the first time in 49 years! That’s a remarkable achievement. And it’s made all the more remarkable when you hear the story of one of the team who won gold. Laura Collett was competing in her first Olympics, which in itself was remarkable. In 2013 she suffered a heavy fall in which she fractured her spine, shoulder and ribs, punctured a lung and was left blinded in one eye. She was in a coma for six days following the accident in which she was evidently saved by the air jacket she was wearing at the time. To go from being in a coma with those injuries, not knowing if you’ll live, let alone ever ride again, to winning a gold medal at the Olympic Games, is remarkable. It’s a lovely story. And there are other stories of athletes who have overcome incredible odds to win. Some overcome incredible odds, don’t win, but never give up. In 1992 at the Barcelona Olympics, British 400m runner Derek Redmond was in the semi final of the event. Tragically, part way through the race his hamstring tore. For the uninitiated, to tear a hamstring means that you can’t run. Sometimes you can’t even walk. To tear a hamstring during a race is every runner’s nightmare. To tear a hamstring in the semi final of the Olympic 400m race means the end of a dream. Redmond fell to the track in pain and distraught, but he was determined to finish the race he had so hoped to win. He rose to his feet and staggered on around the track, hardly being able to stand. As the crowd rose to their feet to encourage him on, a man leapt over the barrier and ran to Redmond. Track officials tried to stop him fearing him a danger to the athlete. But the man waved them away. He was Derek Redmond’s dad. Recognising that his son was determined to finish the race, and understanding how much it meant to him, he put his arm under his son’s shoulder and the two of the walked the rest of the track to the finish line. They finished the race to the thunderous applause of the crowd. It was a remarkable sight. Sometimes winning is about the courage to get up and go again. Winston Churchill once said: “Never, never, never give up!” When the odds are seemingly against us it is sometimes easy to feel like giving up is the best option. The picture of Derek Redmond’s dad running onto the track and helping his son finish the race, captures a beautiful truth about God: he is the one who is with us, the one who comes to help us even in the toughest and most desperate times in life. He is the one who urges us and helps us finish the race. He is the one who longs for us to reach the finishing line however hard that turns out to be. He is the one who is cheering us on and rejoices like that crowd when we have the courage to keep going and not give up. It is the remarkable truth that God will never leave us or forsake us, simply because he loves us too much.