The Last shall be First

Who is your favourite Olympic hero? Jesse Owens? Emil Zatopek? Mary Peters? Daley Thompson? Mine is RAMATUNGE KARUNANANDA. “Who? you ask. At the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, this athlete from Ceylon (as it was then) competed in the 10.000 metres. In the final of that event when all the other runners has finished he still had more than two laps to go. The temptation to drop out must have been great but he kept running alone until he had completed the distance. He received a tremendous ovation and, subsequently, hundreds of letters of congratulation and good wishes. In the Olympics, we are told, it is not winning but taking part that counts; few seem to believe it now, but this man did.

“I have done my best in the race, I have run the full distance” (2 Timothy 4:7)

A few years ago I attended a school sports day when there was an egg-and-spoon race (actually spoon-and-tennis ball) for parents (and grandparents). I and another man of advanced years entered. To preserve some semblance of dignity we agreed to walk the race at a leisurely pace. Long after the other competitors we crossed the finishing line together to tumultuous applause – well, a few people clapped politely. Due to our moderate rate of progress we were the only two who did not drop our ‘eggs’. Therefore I maintain that we were joint winners. Remember the hare and the tortoise!

“…the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong” (Ecclesiastes 9:11)

Norman Moore