Faith is like a marathon, not a sprint. I don’t know when I heard this pithy statement for the first time. It has laid in the back closet of my memory, and every once and while something brings it out of the closet.

This time was an article from the Boston Globe about Katherine Beiers, 85 years young, who had the honor of being the oldest runner in the 2018 Boston Marathon. The paper wrote:

Beiers said it took her 7 hours and 50 minutes to reach the finish line because she walked part of the way. It took her longer than usual, but she was proud of the fact that she was able to complete the grueling course in spite of pouring rain, bitter cold, and an unforgiving wind. https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/04/19/woman-oldest-runner-boston-marathon/lpZxDHlO8sbJQkTyJtstDK/story.html

Faith is a marathon. Katherine began running at the age of 49. Many of us find our faith later in life. She ran her first marathon at the age of 51. It takes some time to build up faith and running skills. I suppose that Katherine had mentors in the beginning, and throughout her 37 years of marathoning. We all should have mentors in our faith, whether we are just beginning, or we have been at it for a long time.

The article also stated that her son John ran this year. She shared her love for marathons with someone else. I can imagine that she had been doing that all of the 37 years she had been running, she had been sharing her excitement for the sport. Though running can be a solitary venture, many find a way to share it in their ordinary lives. Faith is like a marathon. We run alone, and we run with others. We share our excitement as we go.

Faith is like a marathon. We all run to the same goal. That goal is Jesus Christ.

Katherine is already thinking about her next marathon.