Yes, I Gave My Medal Away

Yesterday during worship I spoke about economics. I spoke about it because Jesus had a lot to say on the subject as well. In fact, Jesus spoke more about money than anything and everything else.

At the end of the message, I wanted to give something away that I owned that was of value to me that would be of greater value to somebody else. I thought about what was most valuable to me. I didn't think it would be right to give the boys away. I have lots of books and Bibles that mean a lot to me, but I could always just get new ones. I looked on my mirror in our bedroom and saw a bunch of medals hanging on the sides. Of those, one has more value than all the rest of them combined -- my medal from the 2007 Boston Marathon. It was the first time I ran the race. It was something I always wanted to do. It was my dream coming true. So I took the medal down, put it in the computer bag, and took it to the high school where we worship.

Before the message, I went up to a young woman who is a freshman in high school. I asked her if I could give her something that was of great value to me. She was a little shy, but agreed to accept the gift. At the end of the message I explained what the medal meant to me and then I gave it to her. She put the medal around her neck and seemed to enjoy the gift. I don't remember exactly what I said, but it was something like this:

I hope you will put this medal in a place where you can see it. It's not about a pastor finishing a marathon. It's about a dream coming true. I hope when you see this medal in the future you realize that with some hard work and some faith, that your dreams in life can come true.

The rest of the story: As I was going to bed last night I looked up at the mirror and saw the medals. I didn't notice the medal was gone as there was still a bunch of medals there.

If this young woman just looks at it one time and has a partial understanding that her dreams can come true in life -- this medal is in a much better home right now.

So now I'm going back to Boston in 2009 to get another medal. It won't ever make it to my mirror though because I'll be giving this one away too.

Today's workout on the way to Boston 2009 was 6 miles very easy on a treadmill. It was raining pretty hard outside and I didn't have time for any more.