MY TESTIMONY AROUND A 21.1 KM RACE
Sakkie Parsons
I would like to share with you what came to my heart after I completed the “Om die dorp” 21.1-kilometer race on 10 January 2026, together with my guide, Dennis Frost.
First of all, I want to mention that it was a very well-organized race, and I thoroughly enjoyed the race together with Dennis, who guided me over a 21.1-kilometer distance for the first time.
It was a wonderful morning, but after two hours on the road, we began to feel the sun.
Unfortunately, we took the wrong direction twice, which meant that we lost a lot of time. We then had to turn around and go back to where we should have turned—and of course, in doing so, we lost even more time. As I mentioned, this happened to us twice.
What was wonderful for me, of course, was the well-organized water points, where the people were very friendly and helpful. In my case, every time I reached out my hand through the water point and asked for two water sachets, I was helped quickly and very kindly. As you can see in the photos on my website, this helped me to complete the race. These people were so friendly and so helpful.
You see, most of them were also long-distance athletes, members of the club that hosted the race—and they know what it means to walk or run a long-distance race. From experience, they know what your needs are when you arrive at that water point as an athlete, and that is why they help and act in the way they did toward us.
Let you and I also report for service at the water points in this life, because we know what people’s needs are in this life. Let us begin to act as follows toward our fellow athletes in the race on the road to eternal life:
PHILIPPIANS 2:4–5
4 Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.
5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,
When I later reflected on the race and what a wonderful experience—indeed, a wonderful adventure—it had once again been for me, the following came to my heart, which I now also share with you.
You know, I can still remember so clearly when I came to repentance back in 1973.
It was so wonderful, with all the other believers around you, and you are on fire for Jesus and His gospel. You enjoy this race that you are now part of—but this life race toward our final destination drains your spiritual energy through circumstances and sometimes through people, and especially through satan—because satan does not want you to reach your destination. Therefore, in all his satanic evil, he will try everything to ensure that you do not reach your destination in the hereafter, in heaven.
Back to my 21-kilometer race.
As time went on, the other runners around us became fewer and quieter, because one kilometer after another begins to take its toll. After two hours on the road, you also feel the sun beating down on you, and your concentration is no longer quite what it should be—and then we take a wrong turn. But the road is now nice and open; there are no longer people around me that keep me slightly tense, needing to concentrate so that I do not bump into someone—and it feels good.
However, it feels good because it is the wrong road. When we realize this, it is no longer so enjoyable, because time keeps moving on, and you have now wasted a lot of time in the wrong direction, and now you must still use time to get back onto the right road.
Then, on another occasion, we again take the wrong road—but it is a pleasant downhill, and it feels really good, because your body gets a bit of a chance to almost recover. Then we realize we are on the wrong road again, and once more we have wasted time, and once more we have to use time to get back onto the right road—but this time it is not just turning around, but turning around and going uphill until we can get back onto the right road.
In the same way it is with our race through this life, because—as the Word teaches us—we are certainly in a race in this life, and our struggle is not against time, but against satan:
HEBREWS 12:1–3
1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.
How wonderful it is to know that in the race of life there is one rule that you will not find in the road rules that say you may do this—on the contrary, Jesus’ Holy Spirit encourages us to use that rule in our life’s journey, and that is a “U-turn.”
We had to make a U-turn twice in our 21-kilometer race in order to get back onto the right road. If we had been in a car and a traffic officer had seen us, we would have been in trouble—but the Word is full of encouragements for us to make a “U-turn.”
So, if you are perhaps reading this today and you are on the wrong road—
make a U-turn back to Jesus. And as in my case, it is not always pleasant to think about what now lies ahead for you, but as in my 21-kilometer race, it is ultimately the only way you will reach the right destination.
As far as this writing is concerned, I leave you with the following from our Lord’s precious Word:
MATTHEW 7:13 Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.
MATTHEW 7:14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
Make that U-turn while you remember:
NAHUM 1:7
The LORD is good,
A stronghold in the day of trouble;
And He knows those who trust in Him.
How wonderful!
Then one day you too will be able to cry out, just as my great hero Paul could cry out when he saw the finish line before him:
2 TIMOTHY 4:7–8
7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
8 Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness (your medal), which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to (you who made that U-turn, and)all who have loved His appearing.
Greetings,
Sakkie