“I know that you can do anything and no plan of yours can be thwarted.” Job 42:2 CSB
The Marathon of Hope has raised over $600 million worldwide for cancer research. The annual run for the organization is called the Terry Fox Run. The marathon is held in Canada and other countries around the world. Terry Fox was born and raised in the western part of Canada. At 18 years old he was diagnosed with bone cancer. As a result, he had to have his leg amputated 6 inches above his right knee. During his rehabilitation in the hospital, Terry was overcome with compassion for the cancer patients that were there with him. Most of the patients were children. He decided he wanted to do something to help these people he had come to love. He decided to run across Canada to increase awareness for cancer research. His journey started in St. John’s, Newfoundland on April 12, 1980. Not many people were there, just close friends and family. He ran 26 miles a day through Canada’s Atlantic provinces, Quebec and part of Ontario. The longer he ran, the more enthusiasm grew for his plight and money started to accumulate. His dream was coming true, he had found his purpose.
But his dream was never completed, not by Terry. 143 days into his run cancer was discovered in his lungs. He was forced to stop running outside of Thunder Bay, Ontario. He had gone 3,339 miles when he stopped on Sept. 1, 1980. On June 28, 1981 he passed away at the tender age of 22. The nation mourned his passing. His legacy lives on today through the Marathon of Hope. Terry Fox did more in his 22 years than most of us do in 70 because he found his purpose. His purpose was to start the mission, God used his selflessness to gain the attention of the world. It may have looked like the journey had ended when Terry took his last breath, but his death spurred on the mission that his life could not have. There is no way Terry could have known what God intended when he started his first run on April 12. There is no way anyone could have predicted what the Marathon of Hope would become. Except for God, He knew what was going to happen when Terry took that first step. God knew his plans would not be thwarted.
God has a purpose for your life, just like He had one for Terry’s. We know it’s to love God and love others as we talked about yesterday. For each of us, living it out will look different. The people we are given to love will be different. For Terry, it was his fellow cancer patients. Your purpose may be many, or it may just be one. We don’t know how God will use the love we share with others, but we can be certain, He will use it. God has a purpose for you, and nothing will thwart it from being completed.
