I recently read an incredible story about a man named Robert Owens. Robert’s journey has taken him from the U.S. Air Force Pararescue special operations team, to counseling troubled students at the University of Nevada, to pastoring a church in Reno. While he has participated in marathons and Ironman competitions, probably his most physically daunting test, at the time of this writing, was to be the “World Marathon Challenge.” He was to run seven marathons on seven continents in seven days in early 2018.
Part of what caught my attention about this story was the fact that Robert is my age. While I was a runner for 20 years before I had a knee replacement, I could never imagine tackling this particular challenge. But I wondered, what would motivate someone to do this. Robert still clearly remembers when his 75 year old father said to him, “You know, son, the sad part is when you get old, they just put you on a shelf and you become irrelevant. Fight to stay relevant. Fight to stay in the game. Otherwise they will write you off.”
You and I certainly don’t need to run seven marathons to stay relevant. But his father’s words echo in my mind and I wonder, are we fighting to stay in the game? How can we endeavor to remain “relevant” this week?