My friend and colleague, the Rev. Craig Walker writes these wonderful words of hope, inspired by Psalm 42:5: “Put your hope in God”
It was a couple of Saturdays ago---just before the current virus crisis—that we were in Florida to participate in the Polk Senior Games. It was a beautiful, sunny, and warm Florida morning as we made our way to the swimming pool, where I had signed up for 6 events. How could anything be wrong in a world as beautiful as this?
In Senior Games, I compete against men in my own age group, ages 80-84. For a few wonderful hours, I forget that I am an old man with a variety of aches, pains, and medical conditions. It is like rolling back the hands of time. Just a few days before we left for Florida, I had managed to pull a muscle in my back and I was unable to bend over. Thus, I could not go off the blocks but had to start in the water.
When they called the 50 yard freestyle, I jumped into lane 4 and held on to the wall, awaiting the start. I was seeded second out of five competitors. The guy in lane 5 was also 80, had a faster seed time, and was starting from the blocks. I knew that I was really going to have to move to beat him. I hoped that I could do it, but that was about all. Now I learned years ago in my military officers training, that hope is not a plan. That is correct. But what I discovered since is that hope can be a driving force that can be used to overcome the obstacles of life.
Towering over me and high on the blocks, my competition was poised to unwind like a spring, while I could only push off gingerly from the wall, not too hard—I needed my back to last. So what did it matter if he beat me? It did not really matter. It was all about fun. It was about trying to win the gold medal, rather than the silver, when you are an old man.
The starting buzzer went off and I was immediately confronted with a tidal wave of Biblical proportions as all 240 lbs of him came down right next to me. When I could see again, he was half a body length ahead of me. I had no plan, and only hope that I could make up this distance. And make up the distance I did.
We were now swimming head to head. One thing that you need to know about senior swim meets is that they are kind of boring. Lots of people spread out all over the lanes with little excitement. But once in a while, two swimmers will be evenly matched and will fight it out, head to head, stroke for stroke.
That’s exactly what we did. This caused undue excitement among the spectators. The oldsters jumped to their feet, roared their approval, shaking their canes into the air. There was a crowd of gray-haired admirers lining the edge of the pool, shouting encouragement as two 80 year old thundered down the lanes, each trying to beat the other.
Everything was going fine from my perspective. I was surprised at myself for keeping up with him. But then I realized that we were coming up to the wall. Because of my back, I would be unable to flip my turn and that would cost me about half a body length. It did. Now I was looking at his belly button when I breathed, instead of at his head.
The 50 yard freestyle is a very quick race. It’s down and back in less than a minute. So I had less than half a minute to do something. I immediately employed the method taught me by world-class coach Jason Bradbury. When faced with having to go all out, the tendency is to tighten up causing the swimmer to slow down. I did the opposite. I lengthened my stroke and increased my kicking cadence. The noise of the crowd even came through my earplugs. I slowly gained until we were even. Then just a few final strokes and a lunge for the timing pad. I looked up at the scoreboard. Lane 4 out touched lane 5 by less than a second. I won. It truly was a minute of hope.
In our present health crisis, we need hope. Yes, planning is paramount, but let us not leave out hope. Hope was the driving force that got people through the 1918 flu crisis when 650,000 Americans died. Hope was the force that Americans used in World War II when they had to turn the tide of battle in Europe and the Pacific at the same time. Hope will carry us through.
