Max Lucado tells the story in his book, 3:16, Numbers of Hope, about Team Hoyt…
Team Hoyt consists of a father-son squad: Dick and Rick. They race. They race a lot. Sixty-four marathons. Two hundred and six triathlons. Six triathlons at Ironman distance. Two hundred and four 10K runs. Since 1975, they’ve crossed nearly a thousand finish lines. They’ve even crossed the USA in forty-five days.
Team Hoyt loves races. But only half of Team Hoyt can run. Dick, the dad, can. But Rick’s legs don’t work nor does his speech. At his birth in 1962, the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck, causing brain damage.
Rick’s body didn’t develop as it should have, but he was bright. In fact he entered public school, and even graduated from college.
He couldn’t bathe, dress, or feed himself, but Rick wanted to run. At age fifteen, he asked his dad if they could enter a five-mile benefit race. Dick was not a runner, but he was a father, so he loaded his son in a three-wheeled wheelchair, and off they went. They haven’t stopped since.
Young Rick Hoyt relies on his dad to do it all: lift him, push him, pedal him, and tow him. Other than a willing heart, he makes no contribution to the effort. Rick depends entirely on the strength of his dad.
God wants you to do the same. "Whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16).
We bring to the spiritual race what Rick Hoyt brings to the physical one. Our spiritual legs have no strength. Our morality has no muscle. Our good deeds cannot carry us across the finish line, but Christ can.
Lucado sites this source: David Tereshchuk, "Racing Towards Inclusion," Team Hoyt, http://www.teamhoyt.com/history.shtml.