A Rival's Gift in Berlin

In the summer of 1936, Jesse Owens stood on the long jump runway at the Berlin Olympics with the weight of the world on his shoulders. He had already fouled twice in qualifying. One more foul and the greatest athlete of his generation would be eliminated before the finals even began.

Then something remarkable happened. Luz Long, a German long jumper — the very man Adolf Hitler hoped would prove Aryan supremacy — walked over to Owens. Long suggested that Owens place a mark several inches before the takeoff board to give himself a safe margin. It was the kind of advice a coach gives, not a competitor. Owens followed Long's counsel, qualified easily, and went on to win gold. Long took silver.

After the winning jump, Long was the first to congratulate him — embracing a Black American athlete in full view of Hitler and a hundred thousand spectators. The two men wrote letters to each other for years, until Long was killed in the Second World War.

That is grace: unearned favor offered freely, even when it costs you something. Long had every reason — political, competitive, personal — to stay silent. Instead, he reached out a hand.

Paul wrote, "By grace you have been saved through faith — and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God" (Ephesians 2:8). Grace never calculates what it might lose. It simply gives. And like Owens on that runway in Berlin, all we can do is receive it — and let it carry us further than we ever could have gone alone.