Björn Daelie and Philip Boit

Waiting for the last one ...

I listened to a sermon on the internet on Sunday night and the pastor told a story that I want to share with you dear reader.

There is a TV-show in Sweden called “Skavlan”. Skavlan is a Norwegian journalist doing the show on Swedish TV and he is greatly loved by the Swedish audience.

The program has had many interesting guests. In one of the programs the Norwegian champion Björn Daehlie and his friend; Philip Boit from Kenya was interviewed.

Philip Boit is a cross country skier who has represented Kenya from 1998 starting in the Olympic games, and he finished his skiing carrier this year in the World Championship in Norway.

Their friendship started in a somewhat different way. Björn Daehlie had won the gold medal in an Olympic race in Nagano, Japan in 1998 and was called to the medal ceremony. But he asked the organizers to wait because he said there is still one man on the track. So the organizer, the audience and millions of TV-viewers waited 20 minutes for the last contestant to cross the finish line; and the champion waited for the last person and that was never heard of before. Björn Daehlie told Skavlan that it was extremely bad conditions that day because it had started to rain and it was a heroic achievement to get through the race. So Daehlie wanted to congratulate Boit that he had made it to the finish line. Being a cross country skier is hard enough if you come from Sweden or Norway let alone coming from Kenya.

When Boit returned to Kenya everybody asked who the guy was who had been standing at the finish line and when he told them that it was the champion they couldn’t believe it.

The pastor said: This started me thinking about us and how Jesus is waiting for all of us at the finish line. He is the champion who has won over death and sin and he wants everyone to join him in his victory.

So if you think your life is like the person finishing as the last one in the race, remember the Champion Jesus is cheering for you and greeting you with, "Well done! You made it through bad conditions and you are a winner no matter what!"

Sincerely yours,

Ida