Going the "Extra Mile"
Written by Administrator Wednesday, 23 May 2007 08:09
It was Memorial Day Weekend. As part of the celebration in Chicago, the city was hosting a marathon. As most of you probably know, a marathon race covers exactly 26.2 miles. (That’s the distance between the cities of Marathon and Athens, Greece, that Pheiddippides, a Greek soldier ran in order to announce his comrades’ victory over the Persians in 490 B.C.)
When the Olympic Games were restored in 1896, the “marathon” event was established to commemorate this warrior’s famous run. Ever since that time, marathon races have been 26.2 miles. Always! Well … always until the Lakeshore Marathon in 2005. On that day the 529 runners who finished actually ran 27.2 miles, one mile more than they were supposed to, only nobody told them at the time. The organizers simply miscalculated where the finish line should be.
Apparently, the whole race was a mess, with missing mile markers and confused directions. One woman who had been leading early on got completely turned around. “I was so confused,” she said, “I wanted to cry.”
Mark Cihlar was the organizer and issued an apology of sorts on a website saying, “[Last-minute changes] caused us to miscalculate and we foolishly added an extra mile – how terrible!” Obviously, he didn’t run “the extra mile” – in more ways than one! (Julie Deardorff, “Unwitting Marathon Runners Go Extra Mile,” Chicago Tribune, June 3, 2005)
Maybe the same thing happened to you this past week as you were running your weekly “marathon” (or should I call it “the rat race”?). Perhaps it was a long, grueling week filled with demands and deadlines. At every turn in the road there were more surprises. The “extra mile” seemed endless. You felt as if you were forced to run farther than anyone else. But didn’t Jesus Himself say, “If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles” (Matthew 5:41). The Lord commends those who go “the extra mile.” And God’s grace is always sufficient.
Well … you did make it. Now take a breather … enjoy your family … your cookout … or whatever you choose to do to chill-out on this Memorial Day. And while you’re at it, don’t forget those who paid the ultimate price in the race of life.
When you think about it, going the “extra mile” is what Memorial Day is all about. Remember and honor those who died while serving their country – who ran “the last mile” in the cause of freedom.
Inspired by the poem “In Flanders Fields,” Moina Michael expressed her tribute in 1915 to those fallen in battle:
We cherish too, the Poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led,
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies.
-- Sparky