Carried to the Podium

On July 23, 1996, eighteen-year-old Kerri Strug stood at the end of the vault runway in Atlanta's Georgia Dome, barely able to put weight on her left ankle. Moments earlier, her first vault attempt had ended with a hard landing that left her with torn ligaments. With the U.S. women's gymnastics team's first-ever Olympic gold hanging in the balance, Strug told coach Béla Károlyi she could do one more vault.

She sprinted down the runway, launched off the springboard, and stuck the landing on both feet — then immediately lifted her injured left foot, balancing on her right alone. She scored a 9.712, and the Magnificent Seven had their gold medal. But Strug could not walk off the floor. Károlyi scooped her up in his arms and carried her.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Strug's moment reminds us that our greatest contributions often come not from positions of strength but from places of pain. She didn't vault because she was healthy — she vaulted because something mattered more than her comfort.

In the life of faith, God does not wait for us to be whole before He uses us. He meets us in our weakness and carries us where we cannot walk on our own. When we offer what little we have — broken, limping, afraid — His strength shows up most clearly. And when we cannot carry ourselves to the finish, He carries us there.