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American Cancer Society Bike-a-thon 2009
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Finish line at Buena
Look at the color, the flashbulbs popping, the crowds cheering! Thousands of riders passed beneath the colored balloons this morning all for the purpose of beating cancer. The corporate sponsors were there with big tents. The had giveaways for the kids, free drinks and food. WMMR rocked the place with music. Buena Vista opened its lake, pools, waterslide and other fun facilities for the kids.
For a 66.1 mile ride you got all this and more. The ride starts on the Philly side of the Ben Franklin Bridge. How cool is that to ride over the bridge? Some riders braved the heat and humidity and went on to ride another 33.9 miles to make it a century. Big money goes into this every year. Companies like Lockheed Martin pony up over seven hundred riders and tens of thousands of dollars in fund-raising.
Then there are the survivors like me who ride. We thank our doctors, our families, friends, and perhaps a few thank God and really mean it. Yes, Dr. Andrea Buck and Dr. Michael Greenbaum do wonderful work to keep me cancer-free. But I know there is no guarantee. But hey, after cancer, two heart attacks, and who knows what other death defying maladies, I really have no worries. But I wonder about the other riders. Are they ready to face the Day?
I know that sin brought this all upon me. That's not the point. Just as I crossed the finish line today, I will do so again on that Day. I keep these verses of truth in mind:
"Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 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 is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." - Hebrews 12:1-2
"Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway." - I Corinthians 9:24-27
The cloud of witnesses at Buena today are nothing compared to those I will meet that Day. But I look for Jesus first. Today however I ponder what the churches are doing as they run in obedience (or disobedience) to these verses. I also wonder why none of them participate as groups in this event. There were only a few thousand folks there today who need to hear the Gospel truth.
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