Dear Concordians,

8/8/08 - the day the summer Olympics begin in Beijing. One of the athletes on the National Soccer Team is a young man by the name of Patrick Iaani, a member of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Lodi, CA where our son Nate and his wife Kia are employed and attend as worshipers. As you might imagine, this is quite an exciting time for the Iaani family and the Lodi community as well.

After Nate informed me that this young man "had made it" I read an article about another Californian who will be headed to the Olympics, Ryan Hall, where he is among the favorites to win a gold medal in the marathon. Like most great athletes, achieving this goal has been a long and winding road for Hall who almost called it quits five years ago because of depression.

In 2003 Hall became so distraught that he left Stanford for a quarter and returned to his family's home in big Bear Lake. That time away from school, and from the grind of training and competition, helped Hall to refocus. With the aid of his family and girlfriend Sara Bei, a track teammate at Stanford, Hall came to realize that "he had been putting his feet before his faith, rather than simply putting feet to his faith."

"Running had become my God," Hall says in an autobiographical video at GodTube.com. "Even though I knew Jesus, I wasn't looking to him to find the satisfaction that I was so desperately seeking. My sense of worth and joy was totally dependent on how well I was running. The result was frustration, worry, depression, and discontentment with life."

Over the following weeks and months, Hall again found joy in running as he began to understand that "it isn't the records, championships, or medals that make life fulfilling. It's a life of following Christ. When I'm following Christ closely, there's a contentment and satisfaction in my life that is far greater and more enduring than any good race I've ever run."

Most of us learn life's greatest lessons "the hard way." And when we have our "aha" moment, like Ryan Hall, we often realize what is most important to us or more accurately, who is most important to us and the fact that all that is ultimately good and meaningful and lasting comes from following Him closely.

As summertime winds down may you find a contentment and satisfaction in your life that has come as a result of following Christ more closely.

Running the race and pressing on with you,