THE LESSON I LEARNED IN THE JACARANDA 10KILOMETRE RACE
Sakkie Parsons
The race took place on 8 November 2025, but on the 7th of November it wonderfully rained very hard and long.
Dennis Frost, my guide for the race, phoned me on Friday evening and told me to bring plastic bags to cover our running shoes until the start, because we didn’t know exactly where we were going to find parking and there would be a lot of mud and pools of water which we would inevitably have to walk through.
When I put down the phone, our Lord planted the first seed in my mind of this message I’m sharing with you.
While I packed four good, strong kitchen bags, and four – just the right length – strings into my backpack, the thought came to me:
“It really is wonderful when your guide for the race is an expert with many years of experience.”
The next morning, when we finally found a good parking spot under the circumstances, we pulled our bags over our shoes and I tied mine with the strings I had brought along and we got out. Dennis used the ones he prefers from many years of experience but told me that mine was perfect. How could it be otherwise? – I had the Holy Spirit with all the experience to show in my apartment what would be best.
We then went through, which felt to me like mud bogs and water holes. With a smile, it was actually just mud and puddles of water to where Wayne and his wife Mia had pitched the club’s tent for the day.
I discovered that they were also experts with many years of experience because the tent was set up in a great spot, not too close, but not too far from the mobile toilets, and Dennis and I quickly headed that way, again through mud and puddles.
Why it was so wonderful that we were so within reach of the toilet facilities – because hundreds of people are lining up there before the race starts, and you don’t want to walk far to find an open toilet and, when you finally find one, have a long walk back to the starting line, while you hear the minutes and later the seconds being counted down.
After the race, while we were sitting together, chatting, someone commented that my shoes were still so clean – and my thoughts went back to the morning and the walk through the mud and puddles, the following thought came to me – the message I want to share with you:
Because I had the right friend to support me, I stayed clean.
However, there is truly only one Friend who can help you and me not to arrive across the finish line on the other side of the grave covered of this world’s mess and mud.
And HE is, as far as it is concerned, an Expert in all aspects of how to keep us from being stained by the mud and filth of this world.
We read:
HEBREW 4:14-16 Christ Is Our High Priest
14So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. 15This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. 16So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.
And further:
PHILIPPIANS 2:5-11
5You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.
6Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. 7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, 8 he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.
9Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honorand gave him the name above all other names, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
In the end, the only thing that will matter when I take my last step on this side of the grave, and then take my first step into eternity on the other side, is this:
Will I arrive clean on the other side of the grave – with Jesus as my Guide?
Or will I arrive on the other side of the grave without Him, dirty, smeared with the mud of the world?
Because that will ultimately be the determining factor of where I will spend eternity.
JOHN 3:17-21
17God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.
18“There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. 19And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. 20All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. 21But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.”
Greetings,
Sakkie