Don't Drop The Baton

Relays are run by teams of four runners. The first runner carries a baton about 1 foot (30 centimeters) long. After running a certain distance, called a leg, the athlete hands the baton to the next team member. In these relays, all four members of a team run an equal distance. Most U.S. relay meets include medley relays, in which the athletes run different distances. In the sprint medley, two members of the team run 200 meters each, another runs 400 meters, and the final runner covers 800 meters. In the distance medley, the members of the team run distances of 400 meters, 800 meters, 1,200 meters, and 1,600 meters.

Those before us may have run shorter or longer than we have run. That is not the issue. The issue is, they have finished their leg and now passed the baton onto us to run our leg which may be longer or even shorter.

The thing about a relay race, they always take the fastest runner and put him last. The race is run or lost with the last man. Although all the other 3 did their job if the last person drops the baton everyone loses. I heard about a story in the 1996 Olympics. In one relay race the 1st three dominated that race, there was a large spread. The 1st person ran and led and handed off to the 2nd person and he ran that 2nd lap and put more distance ahead of them and the others and made a perfect handoff to the other man and he run and kept an advantage. The 4th person jumped to fast and got a lead and when the handoff went from the 3rd to the 4th person the baton was dropped (drop the baton). Immediately the camera shot to the 1st two people their heads were buried in their hands. They ran their lap but somebody else dropped the baton and they lost.

Dad, Mother, etc. needs me.” There are a lot of people that might need you but “Moses, Abraham, Elijah, Paul, Grandmother, Grandfather, Dad, Mother, etc. they all need you and me.” We look at these people, they were boiled in oil, they were sawed into, thrown in furnaces but oh we are feeling a little tired today, don’t think I can make it to church. Paul sat in a dungeon in solitary confinement and Paul is looking around for somebody to pass the baton and it is getting dropped (drop the baton). But I have a little sniffle and don’t think I can make it to visitation (Drop the baton). Now instead of this Scripture having the context of some people just looking at what we are doing, now I understand that there is a Moses an Elijah, Elisha, a David a Paul a Timothy and a Barnabas, a Grandmother and a Grandfather, a Dad and a Mother who are no longer just casual onlookers but are intently watching to see what the final runner will do with their baton because they ran their lap. They paid the price and suffered the consequences. They are cheering you on and hoping that you and I want drop the baton and loose the race. They want you to finish what they didn’t get the opportunity to finish.

I wonder how many times Moses’ head has fallen in his hands because we or somebody else dropped the baton. He ran his lap and he wanted to get the trophy but I dropped it. I wonder if Grandmother or Grandfather have their heads in their hands because we dropped the baton. I wonder if Dad or Mother have their heads in their heads because we have dropped the baton.