The Gift That Needed No Enhancement

On September 10, 1960, sixty-nine marathon runners lined up in Rome for the Olympic final. Among them stood Abebe Bikila, a twenty-eight-year-old corporal in Emperor Haile Selassie's Imperial Guard, virtually unknown to the international running world. When the shoes provided to him failed to fit properly, Bikila made a decision that stunned the field — he would run all 26.2 miles barefoot through the streets of Rome.

What spectators saw as a disadvantage was the very thing that had made him. Bikila had spent years running the highlands of Ethiopia at nearly eight thousand feet of elevation, his bare feet toughened against rocky terrain. The smooth pavement of Rome was gentle compared to the paths of his homeland. He crossed the finish line near the Arch of Constantine in a world-record time of 2:15:16, becoming the first Black African to win an Olympic gold medal — without the equipment everyone else considered essential.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians that God's "power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9). What the world saw as lack, the Almighty saw as the place where His gifts shone brightest. The abilities God plants within us do not always need the world's enhancements to flourish. Sometimes the most powerful thing we can do is stop reaching for what everyone else relies on and trust the natural gifts the Lord has already built into us — even when they look like weakness to the watching world.