In the 1996 Olympics Derek Redmond was in the 400-metre race.

During his heat he was out in front. But then his Achilles tendon snapped! He fell to the track. The crowd gasped.

He got up, slowly. Limping. He was trying to move forward while dragging his leg behind him.

The crowd started to cheer him on. He was clearly in pain but was trying to finish the race. But it was questionable whether or not he would finish. The pain was that bad.

But then a man jumped over the spectator rail. He ran up to Derek, put his arm around him, and helped him to the finish line.

Do you want to know who that man was? It was someone who knew how much he had trained and how heart-breaking this would have been. It was someone who loved him deeply and who shared his pain.

Of course, the man was Derek’s father.*

Our heavenly Father knows that we too are limping. Maybe not physically, but emotionally. No one loves us more than he does. And no one is “for us” as much as he is.

In Christ, he comes alongside us and moves us forward. He gives us wisdom for the living of these days, and strength for the living of these days, and himself for the living of these days. 

To a people prone to fear, God said: “So do not fear, for I am with you… I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10).

You may be limping. But God is not. Trust the grip and guidance of his righteous right hand.

By Matthew Ruttan

–Bible quotes are from the NIV.
–*Tony Campolo, Let Me Tell You A Story: Life Lessons from Unexpected Places and Unlikely People (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2000), 15-16.