“Every Mile Out There Is a Gift”

When the explosions went off near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, Amby Burfoot was just seven tenths of a mile from finishing. Burfoot won Boston, the great prize of marathons, in 1968. To celebrate that momentous occasion, he has run it every five years since. This year was the 45th anniversary of his win. He and other runners yet to complete the race were turned back, unable to finish.

Here’s what Burfoot shared in an interview a day or two after the bombing:

There was a time when my entire soul hungered for nothing but winning this race and I was lucky enough for that to happen. But now I run it with the full knowledge that every mile out there is a gift and every finish line is a gift and knowing I don’t know when it’s going to end and be taken away from me or when it will be taken away from others as it was at this year’s marathon.

“Every mile out there is a gift.” That simple line has been lodged in my mind.

Amby Burfoot’s first Boston Marathon was in 1965. Winners of the Boston Marathon are at the top of their sport. That pinnacle demands orienting one’s whole life—schedule, diet, sleep, etc—around preparation for competing to reach it.

The early followers of Jesus knew well the demands of orienting one’s whole life around a great goal–living authentically and abundantly in Christ, and making disciples of all peoples. James writes, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows” (James 1:17).

I think James would like Amby Burfoot’s words: “Every mile out there is a gift.” It’s an attitude of appreciation and gratitude. And it’s an attitude that acknowledges that, as hard as we work at life—like a marathoner’s difficult training regimen—at the beginning, middle, and end of the day, life is better treated as a gift to be cherished than a wage to be earned.