Opening of school is amazing race
Derek Redmond was favored to win the 400-meter race for Great Britain in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. However, midway through the semifinals, Derek's hamstrings tore. He dropped to the ground in pain. Then he got up. He pushed past race officials trying to help him.
"Everything I had worked for was finished. ... I hated the world. ... I felt so bitter that I was injured again. I told myself I had to finish. I kept hopping round. Then, with 100 meters to go, I felt a hand on my shoulder."
Derek's father had run from the stands to his son. He caught up with Derek and put Derek's arm over his shoulder. "I saw my (son) having a problem and it was my duty to help," he said later.
As Derek hung on to his father, there was a burst of emotion in Derek's face, as if every fiber of his is being exploded with an altogether different kind of pain. He was no longer just an injured runner -- at that moment he was a little boy again, telling his father where he hurt.
The 80,000 people watching started to notice the drama that was unfolding. They watched transfixed. Nobody cared who won the race. Something far more important was happening before their eyes. When they finally comprehended what was happening, they cheered, clapped and roared.
A Canadian competitor wrote to Redmond: "Long after the names of the medalists have faded from our minds, you will be remembered for having finished, for having tried so hard, for having a father to demonstrate the strength of his love for his son. I thank you, and I will always remember your race and I will always remember you -- the purest, most courageous example of grit and determination I have seen."
At one level, the story of Derek and Jim Redmond speaks about the sacrifices good parents make for their children. Long before his hamstring tore, Jim faithfully took Derek to practice and attended every race he ran. At that dramatic Olympic moment, the day-to-day loving decisions he made for his son rose to the top, and Jim reaped a rich harvest that only a parent can fully appreciate.
At another level, the story of Derek and Jim Redmond is about pain and suffering -- how reaching out to the transcendent, or someone outside and beyond ourselves, can redeem and give meaning to pain and suffering.
Unfortunately, not all worldviews believe in the transcendent or in reaching out to others. There are atheistic, naturalistic and humanistic worldviews that believe reaching beyond yourself or helping others is for "weaklings." But the poet W.H. Auden rejected such secular humanism. "Humanism needs to be grounded in something higher than a purely material account of the universe, and in something more compelling than the hope of a secular utopia." Only God, he wrote, can ask human beings to "love their crooked neighbor with all their crooked heart."
Some also would object to the mention of God and suffering in the same breath. If God is good, why is there even pain and suffering? If Jim could have, he would have prevented Derek's hamstring from tearing. If God is all-powerful, all knowing, all wise, and all loving, why does he allow pain and suffering?
Marcia Mount Shoop was raped when she was 15. An offspring of three generations of ministers, she ran to the church for safety but did not find healing. The Bible verse "all things work together for our good" did not give comfort. In a New York Times article, she said she went home and felt a small whisper that said, "I know what happened. I understand." She clung to this "frayed little thread." She recalled that "What happened to me wasn't for the good. ... But God took the garbage, the stench ... and gently, tenderly, indignantly wove it into this moment of redemption. What a gift."
Although Derek did not win any Olympic medal after his fall, he went on to become a successful inspirational speaker. However, he is divorced and suffers from chronic stomach ulcers due to painkillers. Shoop's pain was not erased. But, like Thomas who touched the hands and sides of Jesus, she encountered a wounded God who still bore the scars in his resurrected, physical body.
"Healing is not a gift that comes instantly, nor does it always look like what we expect. ... Yet the promise of resurrection, of new life that comes even with wounded hands and sides, offers another picture of healing where our humanity is honored and redeemed," writes Margaret Manning.
To many parents and their children, this school opening is like the beginning of a race. You are strong and ready. To others, it is like the ending of a race. You limp on the shoulders of one stronger than you.
To me, it is both. I am grateful to open school strong and prepared, and I am tethered to a Father who watched carefully from the stands this summer, ran after me and now carries me in his arms. Much like Derek, and his father Jim. But more so.
A race, yes. An amazing race.
"Everything I had worked for was finished. ... I hated the world. ... I felt so bitter that I was injured again. I told myself I had to finish. I kept hopping round. Then, with 100 meters to go, I felt a hand on my shoulder."
Derek's father had run from the stands to his son. He caught up with Derek and put Derek's arm over his shoulder. "I saw my (son) having a problem and it was my duty to help," he said later.
As Derek hung on to his father, there was a burst of emotion in Derek's face, as if every fiber of his is being exploded with an altogether different kind of pain. He was no longer just an injured runner -- at that moment he was a little boy again, telling his father where he hurt.
The 80,000 people watching started to notice the drama that was unfolding. They watched transfixed. Nobody cared who won the race. Something far more important was happening before their eyes. When they finally comprehended what was happening, they cheered, clapped and roared.
A Canadian competitor wrote to Redmond: "Long after the names of the medalists have faded from our minds, you will be remembered for having finished, for having tried so hard, for having a father to demonstrate the strength of his love for his son. I thank you, and I will always remember your race and I will always remember you -- the purest, most courageous example of grit and determination I have seen."
At one level, the story of Derek and Jim Redmond speaks about the sacrifices good parents make for their children. Long before his hamstring tore, Jim faithfully took Derek to practice and attended every race he ran. At that dramatic Olympic moment, the day-to-day loving decisions he made for his son rose to the top, and Jim reaped a rich harvest that only a parent can fully appreciate.
At another level, the story of Derek and Jim Redmond is about pain and suffering -- how reaching out to the transcendent, or someone outside and beyond ourselves, can redeem and give meaning to pain and suffering.
Unfortunately, not all worldviews believe in the transcendent or in reaching out to others. There are atheistic, naturalistic and humanistic worldviews that believe reaching beyond yourself or helping others is for "weaklings." But the poet W.H. Auden rejected such secular humanism. "Humanism needs to be grounded in something higher than a purely material account of the universe, and in something more compelling than the hope of a secular utopia." Only God, he wrote, can ask human beings to "love their crooked neighbor with all their crooked heart."
Some also would object to the mention of God and suffering in the same breath. If God is good, why is there even pain and suffering? If Jim could have, he would have prevented Derek's hamstring from tearing. If God is all-powerful, all knowing, all wise, and all loving, why does he allow pain and suffering?
Marcia Mount Shoop was raped when she was 15. An offspring of three generations of ministers, she ran to the church for safety but did not find healing. The Bible verse "all things work together for our good" did not give comfort. In a New York Times article, she said she went home and felt a small whisper that said, "I know what happened. I understand." She clung to this "frayed little thread." She recalled that "What happened to me wasn't for the good. ... But God took the garbage, the stench ... and gently, tenderly, indignantly wove it into this moment of redemption. What a gift."
Although Derek did not win any Olympic medal after his fall, he went on to become a successful inspirational speaker. However, he is divorced and suffers from chronic stomach ulcers due to painkillers. Shoop's pain was not erased. But, like Thomas who touched the hands and sides of Jesus, she encountered a wounded God who still bore the scars in his resurrected, physical body.
"Healing is not a gift that comes instantly, nor does it always look like what we expect. ... Yet the promise of resurrection, of new life that comes even with wounded hands and sides, offers another picture of healing where our humanity is honored and redeemed," writes Margaret Manning.
To many parents and their children, this school opening is like the beginning of a race. You are strong and ready. To others, it is like the ending of a race. You limp on the shoulders of one stronger than you.
To me, it is both. I am grateful to open school strong and prepared, and I am tethered to a Father who watched carefully from the stands this summer, ran after me and now carries me in his arms. Much like Derek, and his father Jim. But more so.
A race, yes. An amazing race.
