Fatal Lapse of Concentration

"The Moment" by Frank Crymble

What if you made a mistake for just one fraction of a second in your life which was so fatal that a statue was formed to immortalize that moment?

Or what if you had a goal you were trying to reach, and for just one moment you lost focus and compared yourself to another person instead, and that cost you your goal?

I would hate to make such a fatal error! 

Even worse, what if more than 35,000 people watched you live in that one moment, and through media it went viral?  We have seen many such moments!

My imagination was captured today when I learned about “the moment” in a famous race of the century, known as “the Miracle Mile.”

It was August 7, 1954, the historic day at the Empire Stadium in Vancouver, B.C., when two men, who had both broken the four minute mile, would meet for the first time in one race.

It was one of the greatest mile-run-match-ups ever! 

I used to run track, and running is my favorite sport, so this story captured my interest for a number of reasons.

Most of us love to see amazing human feats in highlight videos or in dramatic shoulder-to-shoulder photo finishes.  I love an exciting and exhilarating moment in sports, especially in races on the track!

But I also love the metaphors of running and races that we find in the Bible for our faith.

“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” Hebrews 12.2

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”  2 Timothy 4.7

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize?  Run in such a way as to get the prize.”  1 Corinthians 9.24

It was during my study on Hebrews 12 when I learned from commentator Kent Hughes about this famous race, “The Miracle Mile.” 

“Roger Bannister and John Landy were the only two sub-four-minute milers in the world.  Bannister had been the first man ever to run a four-minute mile.  Both runners were in peak condition.
Bannister...strategized that he would relax during the third lap and save everything for his finishing drive.  But as they began the third lap, John Landy poured it on, stretching his already substantial lead.  Immediately Bannister adjusted his strategy, increasing his pace and gaining on Landy.  The lead was cut in half, and at the bell for the final lap they were even.

Landy began running even faster, and Bannister followed suit.  He felt he was going to lose if Landy did not slow down. 

Then came the famous moment (replayed thousands of times in print and celluloid) as at the last stride before the home stretch the crowds roared.

Landy could not hear Bannister’s footfall and thus compulsively looked back--a fatal lapse of concentration.  Bannister launched his attack, and Landy did not see him until he lost the lead.  Bannister won the “miracle mile” that day by five yards.”

Kent goes on to make this connection:

“Landy’s lapse serves as a modern visualization of what the writer of Hebrews implicitly warned against in his earlier charge to ‘run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith’ (Hebrews 12:1,2 NASB). 

Those who look away from Christ--the end goal of our race--will never finish well.  And this was exactly what was happening to some treading the stormy waters mounting around the early church.  They had begun to take their eyes off Christ and to fix them instead on the hardships challenging them.”

As a result of suffering and struggles, “not a few were distracted.  Those increasingly longer looks away from Christ left some off-stride.  Others stumbled here and there, and tragically a few had quit altogether.”

My heart took a holy heed to the warning I saw captured in Landy’s left-shoulder look!

I must keep running!  I must keep my eyes on the goal, which is Christ!  I must not compare myself to others or get distracted or lose my focus!  Or worse than a statue could be made out of me, for more than forever.

Words Jesus once said ring in my spiritual ears:

“No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”  Luke 9.62

Who does that remind me of?  I am a visual learner, so when I saw that someone had actually made a statue out of Landy’s lapse, I suddenly remembered another salty statue in Scripture:

“But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.”  Genesis 19.26

Whereas for Landy, “A moment that took only a fraction of a second was frozen in time forever”, for Lot’s wife her salty slip-up at Sodom was cemented in Scripture forever.

Even Jesus reminded his disciples: “Remember Lot’s Wife!  Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.”  Luke 17.32-33

Before fear turns us to fatalism or frantic striving, let us consider carefully two applications for the one metaphor of looking back.

We have two statues, and two spiritual realities.

 Lot’s wife, causes us to ask ourselves, “Am I really saved?”
 Landy causes us to ask ourselves, “Will I finish well?”

Some of my readers may not be saved, so this picture of looking back hopefully prods your soul on to seriously consider whether you love this life and the kingdom of this world or whether you would be willing to live instead for Jesus and his heavenly kingdom. 

Others of my readers have committed to living for Christ, but fear failing in faith.  I tend to see myself this way.  I take seriously the warnings from Hebrews, and I was so stunned to see that photo moment of Landy looking back.  Oh, how I do not want to be like that!

The good thing about Landy is that he did in fact finish the race, and he did in fact still get honored as an amazing athlete.  That part of the metaphor makes me believe that he is not a complete failure! 

But the challenge to my faith is to consider whether Landy might have won or tied Bannister if he had not broken concentration and looked back. 

In what ways do I get distracted from Christ? 

What in my life causes me to look away from the goal and take my eyes off Jesus?

What circumstances tempt me to stumble, sin or even think of quitting?

And what encouragement can I find to strengthen my faith and free me from fear of failure?

This is one of my favorite verses: “We who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.  We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure...Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf.”  Hebrews 6.18-20 ESV

Oh!  What a balm to my soul!  To think that I don’t need to strive more or to fear more!  Yes, he wants me to take the warnings seriously, but then he assures me that it is not my efforts that will help me succeed, but my hoping in Christ that will hold me. 

“Hold fast!” it says.  “Our hope is an anchor for our soul!”

Jesus is our forerunner!  He went before us, and not only this, a hall of faith in Hebrews 11, a great cloud (crowd!) of witnesses, is now cheering like fanatic fans in the grandstands for us, that we will finish well with perseverance the race set before us! 

“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus!”

“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.  Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.  But one thing I do:  Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead.  I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”  Philippians 3.12-14

Watch this 1 minute 43 second video to help you cement this metaphor in your memory.  I know I will not forget it.