Nobody Finishes Alone

During the 2016 Rio Olympics, American runner Abbey D'Agostino and New Zealand's Nikki Hamblin were competing in the 5,000-meter heats when their legs tangled and both crashed hard onto the track. The rest of the field pulled away. D'Agostino rose first, but instead of chasing the pack, she reached down and pulled Hamblin to her feet. "Get up," she said. "We have to finish this."

They started running again. Then D'Agostino's knee buckled — she had torn her ACL in the fall. This time Hamblin circled back, steadied her competitor, and the two limped toward the finish line together. Neither advanced to the final. Both received the Pierre de Coubertin medal for sportsmanship.

What strikes me is the instinct. D'Agostino did not calculate whether helping would cost her the race. She simply saw someone on the ground and reached out her hand.

The writer of Hebrews understood this: "Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us" — and notice, that "us" is plural. The Christian life was never designed as a solo event. The Most High placed us in a body precisely because He knew we would fall, and He intended for someone to be close enough to help us back up.

This week, look around your church. Someone near you is on the ground. Be the one who stops running long enough to reach out your hand.