The Man Who Finished

On the evening of October 20, 1968, the Olympic marathon in Mexico City was long over. Mamo Wolde of Ethiopia had crossed the finish line more than an hour earlier. The medal ceremony was done. The stadium had nearly emptied. Then the sound of police sirens echoed through the tunnel entrance, and a lone figure emerged onto the track.

John Stephen Akhwari of Tanzania limped into the Estadio Olimpico with his right leg wrapped in bloody bandages. Earlier in the race, a collision among jostling runners had sent him crashing to the pavement, dislocating his knee joint and gashing his leg. Medics urged him to withdraw. He refused. For miles he had hobbled through the streets of Mexico City in the gathering dark, his knee swelling with every stride.

The few thousand spectators still in their seats rose and cheered as Akhwari shuffled across the finish line — last among the fifty-seven who completed the course. When a reporter asked why he hadn't quit, his answer became immortal: "My country did not send me five thousand miles to start the race. They sent me five thousand miles to finish the race."

The Apostle Paul, writing from a Roman prison with his own execution approaching, declared with the same bloodied resolve: "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith" (2 Timothy 4:7). Faithfulness is not measured by how fast we run or how impressive we look crossing the line. It is measured by whether we finish. Whatever pain slows your stride today, the God who called you did not bring you this far to quit. He brought you this far to finish.