Jesse Owens, one of the greatest athletes of all time, participated in the controversial 1936 Nazi Olympics. His competitor was the superb German athlete, Luz Long. As excerpted from his biography, Jesse confronted this “enemy” but found, instead, a friend.
As the time neared to board the ship that would take me to Europe for the 1936 Olympics, I began to wonder if all the publicity I’d gotten might be crowding out the spiritual side of my life. One morning, sitting at the breakfast table with Ruth and the baby, I said to her, “I’d like for us to go to church before I leave on that boat.”
“I’m glad to hear you say that, Jesse,” she answered. “It’s been a long time since you said that.”
I thought out loud, “Can’t go this morning, got to meet Coach Snyder at ten, maybe next Sunday morning, but I’ve got that press conference and got to get in my practice sometime, we wouldn’t have to go in the morning, could go at night.”
But one busy morning became another, days fled like minutes till, before I knew it, I was kissing Ruth goodbye and getting ready to leave with the American Olympic Team for New York. “I’ll pray for you, Jesse,” she said.
“We never did make it to church, did we?” I said a little sadly and maybe a little scared. “Next time, baby.”
I didn’t think about it again, frankly, until the ship left New York. Then, as the last traces of land vanished I had an almost overwhelming impulse to drop down on my knees and thank God for letting this opportunity come to me—and to ask His help to make the most of it. But I didn’t.
Was it because my teammates were around? Or a bunch of strangers? Or was it because by now I was just too full of myself? I had been brought up with a belief in God and the teachings of Jesus—His Word—to have His Spirit...to believe, to know, that if we struggled to the utmost and climbed the highest mountains within ourselves, above the final summit he would be there. Why would God desert me now? I asked myself. Surely he wouldn’t leave me now.
I had married and fathered a child. I had run as fast and jumped as far as any man in the world. I had gone to a fine university and learned to read some of the most learned books in it. But I had not learned the great truth that God never leaves us. We leave him.
