The 2010 girls cross country state championship race was being run in California. Junior runner Holland Reynolds was having a hard time with dehydration toward the end of the race. A Good Morning America ABC news story showed her collapsing just a few feet short of the finish line. Her coach, Jim Tracy, who suffers from the debilitating Lou Gehrig’s disease had always taught his star runner to never give up. The video shows Holland bringing herself to her knees and crawling across the finish line. Her unbelievable determination won the championship for her school and her coach. Her decision to press on has been a source of inspiration to multitudes of people who have seen the video of her determined crawl.
That press-on spirit is something that the Bible challenges us all to adopt. In Philippians 3:13,14 the great apostle Paul shares a little of his own press-on spirit: “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, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus”. Our goal is not winning a cross country race but the prize of a life that is lived for Jesus Christ. We should press on to victory over those sinful habits. We should press on to consistency in our times of daily devotions. And we should press on with joy as we find ways to serve our blessed Lord.
As the new year is upon us, there will be times that we will find ourselves debilitated by various trials and troubles. Some of those difficulties will even bring us to our knees. When we find ourselves in that painful position, may we hear the voice of our heavenly coach the Lord Jesus call out to us through our pain to “press on”.