Bib 261

In 1967, Kathrine Switzer pinned bib number 261 to her sweatshirt and lined up for the Boston Marathon — a race no woman had ever officially entered. Two miles in, race official Jock Semple spotted her, charged into the pack of runners, grabbed her shoulder, and screamed, "Get out of my race!" Her boyfriend, former football player Tom Miller, threw a body block that knocked Semple aside, and Switzer kept running.

For twenty-four more miles, fear and exhaustion pulled at her like gravity. Every stride was a choice. She knew that if she stopped, people would say women didn't have what it took. So she pressed on — not fast, not gracefully, but forward — and crossed the finish line in four hours and twenty minutes.

Hebrews 12:1 says, "Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." Notice the writer doesn't promise an open road. There will be hands that grab at your shoulders — doubt, grief, temptation, voices insisting you don't belong in this race of faith. The Almighty never guaranteed a clear course. He promised He would be there through every mile of it.

Some days, perseverance isn't about speed. It's one more step when everything in you wants to quit. Whatever mile marker you're standing at this morning, keep moving forward. The One who began this good work in you will carry it to completion.