Yesterday I read the incredible story of a man named Fauja Singh who is one of the newest entries into the Guinness Book of World Records. His record? Singh ran and completed a full marathon over the weekend…at the age of 100! Even at his advanced age he finished the race in just 8 hours, 25 minutes, and 17 seconds; a time good enough to beat five other runners (I wonder how they feel knowing that). Singh has not been working toward this his entire life, but is actually a late bloomer in the running game. It was not until he lost both his wife and son eleven years ago at the age of 89 that Singh started running competitively. At the age of 94 Singh ran a sub-five hour marathon. Even at the age of 100 Singh shows no signs of slowing down saying that he won’t stop running until he dies.
Don’t you imagine that when this man started this hobby that people around him said, “But you’re so old!” In the minds of many people isn’t that just a little late to do something different with your life, especially something that strenuous? Singh, though, didn’t care how long he waited to get into the game, now he is just concerned with excelling at it. What a wonderful metaphor for life, especially as it relates to Christianity!
In Matthew 20 Jesus told the parable of the hired laborers in which a householder went to the marketplace and found idle men early in the morning whom he employed for a penny a day. But after they went to the field to work the man continued hiring men throughout the day, at the third hour, sixth hour, ninth hour, and finally at the eleventh hour. Each of them was hired for a penny a day and at the end of the day they all collected as they had been promised, from the earliest entries on down to the latest. The point of the parable is made clear in vs. 16 – “So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.” Many people have the mindset that at some point we become to old to try to become Christians and expect the fullness of God’s blessings to be showered upon us, but the message of Jesus declared just the opposite! One day we shall all “collect,” from the earliest entries on down to the latest. What a marvelous manifestation of God’s mercy toward man!
Mr. Singh may not be a Christian – his Muslim faith evident from the T-shirt in which he ran which said “Sikhs in the City” – but his example provides a marvelous lesson in principle. When it comes to the Christian race (Hebrews 12:1-2) we cannot afford to put off entrance just because of our age. Take a lesson from Mr. Singh who just started running anyway!