Guiding Light

LIGHT IS BEYOND THE TUNNEL

IN 1968, in the Mexico City Olympics, John Stephen Arkwari of Tanzania painfully hobbled into the Olympic stadium, and was the last to finish the Marathon.

The medals had already been distributed, the winner already crowned, the National Anthem of the winning country played and the stadium getting empty when Arkwari with a bloody bandaged leg struggled to circle the track to the finish line.

The documentary filmmaker Bud Greenspan intrigued at this unique scene walked over to Arkwari and asked him why he had continued the gruelling struggle with no chance of winning. The young Arkwari from Tanzania replied: “My country did not send me here 9000 miles away to start the race. They sent me here to finish the race.”

The trouble with the world is that everyone looks ahead to prepare for the journey. Facing backwards, you will see that life meant more than just survival. And success was in the journey and not in the arrival.

Robert H. Schuller the evangelist, tells the story of a lady who loved to sing.

One day, she saw a young hippie-like guy moving into one of the tenements in the neighbourhood. He had a long beard and dishevelled hair. Everyone was afraid to approach him imagining that he was a robber. Several days passed. One day when this old lady came back home late at night, the hippie friend was in the corridor of the building. Instead of getting scared and running away, she began to sing a song which contained the following words: “When you walk through a storm, hold your head up high and don’t be afraid of the dark.”

Hearing the song the hippie retreated and the lady was able to enter her room and lock it. After sometime, she went to bed grateful that nothing happened to her in the encounter with the hippie. Next morning she saw a torn, crumpled piece of paper under her door.

It was scribbled by the hippie. The message read: “I don’t know who you are, but thank you for singing to me last night. I was about to commit suicide but when you started to sing, the words were encouraging. I want you to know that you saved my life. I am going to another city to start a new life.”

Words are really powerful when used in the proper context and situation.