As I set off on my regular run through the woods this afternoon, I will reflect on the wonders of nearly 50 years of walking (or should I say running) with the Lord!
And I will especially be giving thanks for marathon running, which effectively led me to Christ on 20 May 1972. Then again, a dozen years ago, it was running that paved the way for a specific calling to be a ‘helper of Israel’.
Life in All its Fullness
It was my doctor dad who encouraged me to take to the road with him and my brothers as he felt it would expand my chest – I was a sickly asthmatic as a child. I never looked back and, as many do, became addicted to the sport – even competing in a number of ultra-marathons.
For the uninitiated, a ‘standard’ marathon is 26 miles 385 yards – the distance between Athens and the town after which the event is named, from which a herald had brought news of a military victory in 490 BC.
Having achieved my goal of breaking three hours in the Durban Marathon of 1970, and having since settled with my gran in north London, I travelled up to Edinburgh to see if I could do even better in the Scottish Marathon, which started at the Commonwealth Games stadium and ended by the sea at North Berwick.
Marathon running effectively led me to Christ on 20 May 1972, and also paved the way for my specific calling to be a ‘helper of Israel’.
In the cold and wet conditions, my muscles tightened and, at 22 miles, I simply ‘hit a wall’ (as they say) and couldn’t run another step. I was devastated, and over the next few days it caused me to consider where my life was going. What was it all about?
You could say I was ripe for harvest. A South African friend and fellow athlete just happened to be staying with me at the time and, fresh from an evangelistic outreach in Oxford Street, decided to pick on me too. “Did you know that God has a plan for your life?” he posed, to my initial discomfort.
Then came the knockout punch when he quoted the words of Jesus, who said: “I have come that you may have life; life in all its fullness” (John 10:10). In that moment I knew it was true, and that my life needed to take a new direction – with Jesus.
Endurance Required
Charles Gardner completes the Castle Howard 10K trail in North Yorkshire in 2010. Photo: Linda GardnerLife has been a marathon since, with much endurance required and many a fall – as I was reminded on my run earlier this week when I tripped over a tree root and came crashing to the forest floor, fortunately only grazing myself.
One translation of the Prophet Isaiah puts it this way: “Even the fittest may stumble and fall, but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength” (Isa 40:30f).
Amidst the busyness of work and church life, I got out of the habit of running until one day I heard the Lord say I should take it up again. He wanted me to be physically fit so that I would be in good shape for a particular spiritual calling.
He wanted me to focus my gifts, and my writing, on the Jewish people, for which I would require patient endurance, strength, wisdom and clarity of purpose. And that has become my goal – to run with perseverance the race marked out for me (Heb 12:1) so that, by God’s grace, I will one day be able to say with Paul: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Tim 4:7).
