Although it may be hard to tell now, when I was younger I
was quite the runner. My parents were
crazy and started making me run competitively when I was four years old. By the age of seven we were traveling across
the country to compete in national cross country and track races. This continued through my childhood and into
my teenage and high school years, until my knees and legs decided they had
enough pounding. Being that immersed in
running, one of my idols growing up was Steve Prefontaine. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Steve
Prefontaine, he was a US Olympian from the University of Oregon who finished 4th
in the 5,000m at the 1972 Olympics in Munich and died tragically in a car accident
before the next Olympics. At the time of
his death at the age of 24, Prefontaine held every American distance record
between the 2,000m and 10,000m. Even in
his short life, he became the greatest American distance runner in history and
if it wasn’t for his tragic death, he may have become the greatest distance
runner in the world. There have been
multiple movies made about his life, but my favorite is simply titled “Prefontaine.” There is a scene in the movie where he is
talking about what motivates him and drives him and he says “All my life people
have been telling me ‘you’re too small Pre,’ ‘you’re not fast enough Pre,’ ‘give
up your foolish dreams Steve.’” But he didn’t listen to those critics, he knew
that he was destined for greatest.
You may be thinking, that’s great Matt but its 4 days before
Christmas, why are you talking about some random runner from the 70s? Great question – this weekend in our first
reading we hear the passage from Micah foretelling the greatness that would
come from the town of Bethlehem. When
the people heard the prophet Micah first speak that message, they must have
thought he was crazy. Bethlehem? Nothing good will ever come from Bethlehem, it’s
too small, it’s the smallest of the towns of Judah, no one knows Bethlehem, and
no one cares about Bethlehem. Why would
God choose Bethlehem? Little did they
know that one day, Jesus, the Son of God, would be born to a virgin, in a
stable, in that little, unimportant town.
God doesn’t care if you are the biggest or the smallest, the
fastest or slowest, the richest or poorest.
God loves you because you are you.
You are enough. You are a
beautiful child of God. He is calling
each one of us to greatness. Every day
he calls you to be the greatest version of yourself that you can be. Let me say that again, You are enough. You are enough. You are enough.
One of my favorite sayings that I reflect on often is that “God doesn’t call the equipped, He equips the called.” No one is
too small, too young, too little or too unimportant to do amazing things if they
are open to God’s will. God chose little,
unimportant Bethlehem to be the birthplace of the Savior of the World, just
think what great things he is choosing you for!
May you and your loved ones all have a very Merry Christmas and a happy and blessed New Year!
Matthew Bensman
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