Gil Dodds
— Patience
He waited seven days, the time set by Samuel; but Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and Saul's men began to scatter. So he said, "Bring me the burnt offering and the fellowship offerings." And Saul offered up the burnt offering. Just as he finished making the offering, Samuel arrived, and Saul went out to greet him.
"What have you done?" asked Samuel. 1 Samuel 13:8-11
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. . . Hebrews 12:1
. . . because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. James 1:3-4
Patience is one the great secrets of success in track. But it took me a long time to learn it.
When I was a sophomore at Ashland College, Ohio, I was given my first opportunity to race in Madison Square Garden. I was being coached by mail by an old friend (Ashland had no track team) and he advised caution. But I was so thrilled at the chance to run the famous arena that nothing could hold me down.
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I promised myself I'd run the legs off every other man in the race.
But I lacked experience in the elbowing, shouldering crush of big indoor track races. And long before the grueling two miles were over, I was bumped and jostled, thrown off stride, and finally dumped from the track completely. I climbed back onto the boards again in a dazed condition and staggered for a hundred yards or more bouncing off one side of the runway and then the other. As if from a great distance, I heard the 18,000 people in the stands booing me.
Then the runners, who by this time had lapped me, were jostling into me again. And this time I was sent sprawling. In a towering rage, the track director marched up and ordered me out of Madison Square Garden. I was commanded never to show my face there again.
I went back to college much chastened and settled down to begin training again, determined to listen to my coach and forget about whipping the world. But in my senior year it happened again. In a meet held in Beloit, Wisconsin, I ran a 4:13 minute mile. The fever started to build in me once more.
After graduation, I was determined to enter big-time competition. I really wanted to run and I'd prayed about it. But I was impatient. I wrote everybody I could think of who might be interested in sponsoring an up-and-coming runner. And the result was exactly — nothing!
Chastened once more, I decided to wait on the Lord. If He wanted me to run, He would make a way. And if He didn't want me to run, nothing on earth I could do would make me a champion.
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A short time later, I received a letter from Walter Brown with an offer to run for the Boston Athletic Association. He invited me to come East at his expense and offered to help me find a job while I trained.
It wasn't until later that I found out the chain of events that led to that letter. Following my graduation, my high school and college coach (the one who had coached me by mail at Ashland) wrote a letter to Jack Ryder at Boston College who had once coached him. In due time, Ryder contacted Walter Brown and Mr. Brown wrote me. It was clear that God was working things out for me to run but He was working things out on His schedule, not mine!
The months passed swiftly after that. I came East and began to train under Jack Ryder. Under his coaching my time dropped lower and lower for the mile and two mile. In the years between 1944-55, in God's own good time, He gave me opportunity after opportunity to run against the world's greatest track men in Madison Square Garden and elsewhere.
Patience seems to be the hardest virtue to practice in life as well as in track. All around us we can see Christians hustling and bustling in the service of the Lord. And one wonders if the Lord has even been consulted about half of the projects underway!
If many of us were really frank, we would confess to a suspicion that God is a bit sleepy and slow in carrying out His will. Perhaps this explains the popular notion that He looks like an old man with a long white beard! But how else can we explain the fact that so often we are prepared to do something for God's kingdom and the "perfect" opportunity opens up, it seems that the heavens are strangely silent! Often we
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go ahead and do the "obviously good" thing, only to find out later with disappointment that we have missed out on the best!
This was Saul's experience. He had great physical attributes. He was a giant of a man. And he had leadership ability and humility too — in the beginning. But he lacked patience. Samuel told him to wait until his arrival so that the aged prophet of God might make the required sacrifices properly. But Samuel was late in coming. And as the time dragged on, Saul yielded to the pressures of the moment. He made the sacrifices himself "to expedite matters" and in the process, lost his kingdom, his reason and finally his soul.
It takes patience to be a good disciple of Jesus Christ. He was not impressed with the swaggering boasts made by Simon Peter and he will not be impressed with the great sacrifices and daring deeds that we may offer Him. He is looking instead for patient men and women who will quietly wait for His time, His plan, His empowerment and His glory. These are the only people He will use.
Are you available to Him?
Prayer
Our Heavenly Father, quiet all my eager strivings to do great things for You. Help me to see that nothing avails that is not initiated by You. Nothing prevails that is not directed by You. And nothing succeeds that is not carried to its conclusion by You. I ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.
Gill Dodds was a world champion miler affiliated with the Boston Athletic Association; youth counselor with Naperville Community High School, Naperville, Illinois.
