The Man Who Carried His Son Across Every Finish Line

In 1977, fifteen-year-old Rick Hoyt told his father Dick that he wanted to participate in a five-mile charity run. Rick has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair — he cannot walk or speak without assistance. Dick was no runner. He was a retired lieutenant colonel with no athletic training. But his son wanted to run, so Dick pushed Rick's wheelchair across that finish line.

That single race became over a thousand. For more than four decades, Dick Hoyt pushed, pedaled, and pulled his son through marathons, triathlons, and thirty-two Boston Marathons. In Ironman competitions, Dick swam 2.4 miles towing Rick in a boat, biked 112 miles with Rick in a seat on the handlebars, then pushed Rick's wheelchair for the full 26.2-mile marathon — all in a single day.

When asked through his communication device what he wished most he could give his father, Rick typed five words: "Dad, I would push you."

That is the shape of love — not a feeling, but a body bent low under the weight of someone else's dream. The Apostle Paul wrote, "Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things" (1 Corinthians 13:7). Dick Hoyt bore all things — literally — because love does not calculate the cost.

The God who carries us is not waiting for us to become lighter. He runs with the full weight of us on His heart.