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Amazing Stories & Daily Devotionals
In a NCAA Division II cross-country championship in California, Mike Delcavo and 127 runners came to a fork in the road. Mike and four others took the correct route and veered left. But the majority of runners missed the turn and took the shorter path, which shaved about 1,000 meters off the 10,000-meter race.
Mike and the four runners who followed him soon reunited with the larger pack. Since most of the runners took the shorter route, they were now in the lead. At the end of the race, Delcavo, who was the fastest runner, should have been declared the winner and the other runners should have been disqualified for leaving the correct course.
Because 122 runners took the wrong route, it presented a problem for the officials. How did they resolve it? Even though the race was over, they decided to change the official course route to legitimatize the runners who took the shortcut! Instead of Delcavo finishing first, the official results show he finished 123 out of 128.
The officials solved their problem by changing the rules and turning the wrong course into the right one. The decision wasn’t fair, but it sure made the runners who took the shortcut happy.
We live in an upside-down world that tells us the wrong path is the right one. “There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Prov. 14:12). What was believed to be wrong a few decades ago is considered to be right by some people today, and what was considered right is now called wrong. Isaiah said, “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil, who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness, who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter” (Isa. 5:20).
It’s easy to follow the large group that’s running the wrong way, but it takes courage to stay on the right path and live for the Lord. Paul writes, “If someone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules (2 Tim. 2:5). And we all should play by God’s rules. www.makinglifecount.net www.kentcrockett.blogspot.com