Daily Word of Grace # 15 (April 6, 2020)
When I was thirteen years old, with crooked teeth and acne and the other “joys” of adolescence I had an awesome soccer coach, Coach Lundberg, a large intimidating former football player. One day at practice he told us that if any of us wanted to run with him on the evenings we did not have practice to just show up at his house at 6:30. A few evenings later I road my bike to his house but was the only one there, so I thought I must have arrived at the wrong time. Nevertheless I rang their doorbell and he came to the door, still dressed in his Navy uniform (he worked at the Pentagon). He grinned and told me to wait a sec, and then emerged a moment later with his running gear on, and grinned again, “Let’s go!” We ran for a couple miles through his neighborhood, and the whole time he spoke words of encouragement and grace to me, along with some off color jokes. He literally went the extra mile for me and with me, and I never forgot that. In his Sermon on the Mount Jesus said, “If anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile” (Matthew 5:40). Although I did not force Coach Lundberg to go a mile with me (no one could do that) he did so anyway. On Good Friday Jesus was forced to go the mile with a cross on his back and he went the extra mile all the way to Calvary for the whole world, including you. And even now the Risen Jesus is with you as you run, or walk, through the neighborhood of your life, grinning, “Let’s go!”
Love and Prayers,
Dave