I can’t remember how it all came to be, when I first tried it.  It’s been a few years ago that I used this technique with my cross country teams.

Technique… that makes it sound like something I planned, something that I gave a lot of thought to in order to help make my runners, well, better runners… and better people.  Not so.

You see, on my middle school cross country team, it usually works out that we have some really fast runners, some really slow runners and some in the middle. When we run long distance workouts, it works out that the fast ones finish waaaay ahead of the slow ones.

One day, I must have said to the fast ones when they finished, to jog back out to the last ones and run in with them. “Nobody runs alone,” I said.  From that day on that has been my mantra for workouts like that.  The fast go back to help the last.  Nobody runs alone.

Today, at the school where I teach, we received word that a friend and former colleague was in a serious automobile accident.  As I type this, Kevin is in critical condition with severe head trauma.  Age 37, married with three little kids, Kevin is clinging to life.  The news hit us hard.  Kevin, is too young, is too needed here on earth to be called home to Jesus, just yet.  So we prayed…

Our principal, one of Kevin’s closest friends, gathered the middle schoolers in the commons so we could pray together.  He struggled.  It was hard for him to get the words out.  They came slowly and clearly, wet from his tears.  He led us in praying for healing, in praying for Kevin’s family.

And there they all sat.  Two hundred plus middle schoolers, nary a one knew who this Kevin guy was, but still praying because a handful of us who did were suffering.  When just a part of  the body suffers, the whole body suffers…

We had cross country practice again today.  It was one of those distance workouts.  The fast ones took off, zipped around the two and quarter mile course finishing waaaaay ahead of the slow ones. After about half of the team was in and after a little bit of recovery time, the first runners gradually started jogging back along the course, and I watched, amazed.  The first, the fast, picked up and jogged in with their slower teammates.  Without me saying a word, they came alongside them and helped them finish the course.

I don’t know where Kevin’s course will lead him.  I do know that many people have already come alongside Kevin’s family and friends – praying, caring, supporting, helping, encouraging, loving…  praying for peace, strength, courage and healing.  God is showing his presence through all these good people.  God is showing Kevin and his family and the rest of us that nobody runs alone… never alone… never… never alone… never…