Don't Let Anything Stop You

Last week my wife and I were in Spokane, Washington for a wedding. A friend who we stayed with is really into jogging. I asked her if she had ever heard about Cliff Young.

Even though the story of Cliff Young happened twenty-six years ago, he is still a hero in Australia. And as I told our friend about what Cliff accomplished, I began to think about parallels from his story that still apply today.

There appears to be a lot more obstacles in our world today then there were a few short years ago. Many people are confused about the current economic situation. Some people even feel success is no longer an option; they feel like everything is against them.

Those feelings, however, are just a response to negative thoughts. The truth is, the only thing that can stop you from success is you.

Cliff Young didn't let anyone or anything stop him. Back in 1983, plenty of people thought that he was crazy to even consider running in a race. After all, this was no ordinary race. This was the Sydney to Melbourne race, considered to be the world's toughest race. The distance is 875 kilometers, or just over 543 miles!

That year almost every one in Australia who found out Cliff was participating thought is was insane for him to undertake such an impossible feat. One reason they thought is was impossible for Cliff was because he had never participated in a run before. On top of that, he was 61 years old. Many feared that he would die trying.

The Sydney to Melbourne race takes at least 5 days to finish. Cliff Young entered the race against world-class athletes. He accomplished the unthinkable and inspired the whole nation.

The professional athletes participating in that race knew that in order to complete the race, you would need to run 18 hours and then sleep for 6 hours. But Cliff Young, having no experience in these kinds of events, did not know that he should limit himself to running only 18 hours.

The morning after the race began, much to everyone's surprise, Cliff was not only still in the race but had not stopped for the night. He was still far behind the world-class athletes, but he just kept on running, even waving to spectators watching the event on the highways.

Cliff kept running. Every night he got just a little bit closer to the runners leading the pack. By the last night, he passed all of the world-class athletes.

By the last day, he was far in front of them. Not only did he run the Melbourne to Sydney race at age 61, non-stop, without dying, he won first place, breaking the race record by 9 hours and becoming a national hero!

Australia fell in love with the 61-year-old potato farmer who came from nowhere to defeat the world's best long distance runners. He finished a 543 mile race in 5 days, 15 hours and 4 minutes.

Cliff did not know that he was supposed to sleep during the race. He said when running throughout the race, he imagined that he was chasing sheep and trying to outrun a storm. He wasn't even aware that there was a prize for first place.

When Cliff was awarded the first prize of $10,000, he said he did not know there was a prize and insisted that he had not entered for the money. He said, "There're five other runners still out there doing it tougher than me," and he gave them $2,000 each. He did not keep a single penny for himself. This act endeared him to all of Australia.

So what is stopping you from doing the things that you want to do in your life? Is it the economy? Is it the uncertainty of our times? Or, is it you that has decided to give up and just accept things as they are?

Cliff believed he could run that race, even though from all appearances it was impossible and no one believed in him. He just decided to keep moving forward.

I don't know if Cliff believed in God, but regardless of the economy and regardless of the odds, God is not out of business. For those who do believe in God, we not only keep moving forward toward our dreams with persistence, but we put our trust in a loving God Who truly does want to see us succeed.

What is stopping you? It may not be the current situations we face today. It could just very possibly be you who is stopping you. Don't let it be the current economic situation and don't let it be you.