Keep Digging

Henry is the oldest person I’ve ever seen stretching before a run.  He told me he was 80, started running when he was 70, and ran Boston at 72.   We were getting ready for the Quarry Crusher—a nearly four-mile run down into a massive pit and then back up.  They’ve been digging granite out of the quarry for decades, and the crater that has been created is very impressive.  With a twinkle in his eye, Henry told me to be careful on the downhill half of the run and to keep digging on the uphill half.  I told him he was an inspiration.

Sylvia and Jim Mallory are doing some digging of their own.  They are digging out our newest church plant and had 16 in their first service last Saturday.  Like my new friend, Henry, they, too, are octogenarians.  Both in their 80s, Sylvia and Jim are convinced God wants to do a new thing in Ridgeville, SC, and are planting a Church of the Nazarene in response to God’s call.  I tell them they are an inspiration.   

On the way back up the Quarry Crusher Run I was thinking about Henry, whom I had passed on the way down.  My lungs were burning and my legs were on fire.  That was about the time an 8-year-old girl passed me.   I told her she was an inspiration.

Keep digging.