Finish the race!

2 Timothy 4:7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

The story goes back to October 1968 when the first Olympic Games were being staged in Latin America. It was one of the hottest Sunday afternoons of Mexico City when men’s marathon started at 3:00 pm local time.
Out of 74 participants, 17 could not finish the race. At 7pm, it was almost an hour since all marathon runners had crossed the finishing line of 26 mile Olympic marathon in the grueling hot day, suddenly a lone runner wearing the colors of Tanzania emerged through the stadium gate literally hobbling. The event left the last few thousand audiences amazed with what they experienced next – the man emerged was John Stephen Akhwari who, while running, had fallen down and had badly hurt himself. He was bleeding and his knee had got dislocated from the joint.
Considering the severity of his injuries, Akhwari was repeatedly asked to quit the race but he denied. He fell, dragged himself, ran in between but finished the marathon limping over the line. On the finishing line, he received a huge applause and almighty cheers from the little crowd. His body was exhausted but not his spirit; his competitors crossed him one by one but his determination rewarded him in tremendous pain. Akhwari never won any Olympic gold medal but he became the greatest example of never-give-up spirit, and a tale of courage.

When he was asked the reason of doing such kind of crazy act, he replied,“My country did not send me 10,000 miles just to start the race; they sent me to finish the race.”(Story Here)

How many times have we been about to quit the race? How many people have told u to quit?
Paul in his second letter to Timothy encourages us to finish the race, he doesn't say to finish first, he just wants to finish the race. We have been hurt, that's true, we have fallen , but everybody has. Even tough others are so far ahead, God didn't send you to earth to start the race he sent you to finish it.