For several years, The Great North Run was a big event in our family, and we made an annual pilgrimage during September to support family members and friends from Church as they made their way from Newcastle Upon Tyne out to South Shields. Not that I have ever even contemplating taking part, anybody who has ever met me will know that I was never designed for such activities. A group of us would congregate on the links at South Shields, with hundreds of other supporters performing the vital task of cheering our family and friends along as they made their way along the final mile to the end of the run. Those years of attending the Great North Run were an inspiration to me and a source of umpteen sermons, the action always began in the sky above us as we could see the TV helicopters getting closing, signalling that the first wheelchairs were on their way, they were followed closely by the elite women, often led by Paula Radcliffe, and then the Elite men. I was there when the first sub one hour time was recorded!
The remarkable thing about the Great North Run is the sheer number of people who run down that last mile of the course, literally minutes after the first wheelchair has passed, the road is filled with people, some who look fresh as a daisy, others who look as though the next step will be their last. I have seen people so dehydrated that they were on the verge of collapse, who have been scooped up by other runners and carried over the finish line. I have seen plenty of runner who have got within a mile of reaching their goal and been carted off in an ambulance. The vast majority dig deep and with drive and determination, when they have used up all their energy reserves, they make it and reach their goal.
This week’s bible story tells us about Zacchaeus and ask most folk what they know about Zacchaeus, and they will tell you that he was a little bloke who climbed a tree to see Jesus. For a few moments today, I want to applaud Zacchaeus’s sheer determination, he wanted to see Jesus and the fact that there was a crowd of taller people blocking his view, might have been enough for a lot of people simply to say “this isn’t worth the bother, I might just as well go home” but not Zacchaeus, he knew what he wanted, he had his mind set on seeing Jesus and nothing was going to stop him, so with every ounce of guile and determination, he spotted a tree and climbed up, so that from his vantage point, he got what he wanted. But he got even more, maybe because of his efforts, Jesus took time to talk with him and changed his life.
How often have you thought “what’s the point? No matter what I do I’m never going to be able to do this” and we give up. That’s why companies that run gyms make money, why slimming clubs do so well, there are so many aspects of life where we almost expect to fail. No matter how exhausted those runners were as they plodded down the last mile of the Great North Run, they had almost achieved their goal and that moment on the sea front at South Shields marked hours of pounding the streets back home, eating sensibly, being focussed, and I take my hat off to every single person who proudly owns a medal to say they did it!