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A True Hero Rises to the Occasion

 

Nazi soldiers lined the streets, enough to send chills down the spines of those they deemed unfit to be called human. But not enough to prevent the gathering of athletes from a myriad of countries to take part in the largest global athletic competition, the Olympics.

The year was 1936. Despite rigid segregation in the United States, a black American stood on German soil as our country’s best representative to aim for three gold medals.

By Hitler’s definition, he wasn’t human. And maybe Hitler was right. Because what he’d accomplished a year earlier in Ann Arbor – breaking four world records in a 70-minute span – had been superhuman, at the least. In fact, no man has even come close to doing the same again.

Born the grandson of slaves and a son of a sharecropper, he was named James Cleveland Owens after his father. James’ name got changed to Jesse when he told a teacher he was “J.C.” and the teacher misunderstood. Grabbing golds in the long jump and both the 100- and 200-meter sprints, he mastered his race in front of the man who had claimed there was only one master race in existence.

A few days into the Olympics and due to political maneuvering by the host country, pressure had been put on the Americans to sit out their two Jewish competitors for the final relay. So not long after Jesse had earned what he’d thought was his final gold of the Games, he was penciled in to run the first leg of the 4 x 100 men’s relay.

Neither Jesse nor his counterpart, Ralph Metcalfe, had practiced passing the baton at Hitler’s Olympics. The relay wasn’t a common race for either. Yet with little time for preparation, they took to the track determined to do the best they could with what they had. Not only did Jesse manage to stay in his lane and run faster than his competitors, but he passed the baton seamlessly on his way to earning his fourth gold of the Games – as well as another world record.

Jesse had competed personally and corporately in a foreign realm that was antagonistic to him, yet he’d come out on top. Despite harsh opposition from within and without – due to segregation’s grip on the culture of that day – it was Jesse who stood on the highest podium more times than any of the others. It was Jesse whose unwavering confidence in who he was created to be and what he had been created to do gave his family and the entire nation a reason to be proud. Jesse faced racial opposition both from his own team (his own country), and from the country in which he raced. He was in a hostile environment and yet he did not allow that environment to dictate his actions or lessen him as a man.

As a result, even the opposition eventually honored his prowess by naming a street after him. There is now a street named Jesse Owens in the same nation where he once left its false ideologies in his dust.

Friend, God has a place where He records names too of ordinary people who faced opposition (both internal and external) and came out on top. He’s listed them for us in His Word, found in Hebrews 11. We know this chapter as the Hall of Faith. It is where we see how God can use anyone, despite the challenges they may face, to do great things for the kingdom. It’s all based on belief – do you believe in God’s power and what He can do through you? And do you believe that He’s placed within you the seeds of greatness? If you do and if you act on that faith, then you – like Jesse and like those listed in Hebrews 11 – can accomplish all that God has designed you to do!

Never let your limitations limit you. Walk by faith, don’t just talk by faith – and you will experience the supernatural hand of God on you!

  

Woman to Woman

Testimonies from People Like You

A Note from Tony

Our Gift To You - Heroes of the Faith
 

 

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Testimony Time

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 M. W.

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