Seeing the invisible

April 24, 2008 | By Mark | Add a Comment

I was just chatting with my very brave friend who ran in the Boston Marathon on Monday despite being injured and not feeling too great. I asked her about mile 13 (Wellesley College – aka the “Land of Milk and Honey” by my college friends) where you can hear the people cheering for more than a half-mile away. They are basically supporting you with all the energy they have inside of them. She said that it was so awesome, she thinks she teared up. It isn’t just that one mile though, people are pulling for you the whole way. If you so choose to identify yourself, they’ll even call you by name.

It reminded me of our Championship basketball game in High School. When we came out of the tunnel for that final game, we saw a sea of maroon covering the entire bleacher area. It seemed as if the whole town was there that day. There was even a sign in the crowd that had my name on it. I’ll never forget that moment when I first saw all our fans cheering us on. I couldn’t believe that so many of them wanted to see us and how passionately they were rooting for us. I want to tear up just thinking about it.

Our crowd of witnesses are usually invisible, but on those days you could actually see, feel, and hear the support. They give encouragement to persevere. As one book puts it, we aren’t promised that the journey will be easy, only that the destination will be worth it. The journey of life can be long, hard, and painful but we are being cheered, encouraged, and carried along. And we’re never alone.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” – Hebrews 12:1