So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. Galatians 6:9
Keep on going. That was the encouragement that changed everything for Julien Alfred.
The scene was the Paris Olympics 2024. It was pouring rain the day a young woman from the tiny Caribbean Island of St. Lucia stepped up to the starting line of the 100-meter dash. Alfred had grown up running through warm tropical rain on her mango-shaped island. And in just 10.72 seconds, she won Olympic gold—the first medal in her nation’s history.
Back in elementary school, a coach noticed her gift. But her father died when she was 12, and she gave up on running. Still her coach encouraged her: “Keep on going. Don’t stop. Stopping is not an option!”[1] And so—she ran again.
Alfred was invited to run at a US university but was injured during her first two years. “So many times,” she said, “I felt like giving up …. I would go back to my room and [ask] God, ‘Why is this happening to me?’… [but] God was preparing me for what was to come.”
Julien Alfred didn’t give up.
When asked about the moment before her Olympic gold race, she said, “I felt like … I had a good chance of winning but [thought], ‘if I don’t, that’s ok because God has a plan for me’ …. You should have faith in God, knowing that things are going to come [according to His plan].”[2]
In the race that you and I are running, there is reassurance for us too. The Bible encourages us with these words, “So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up” (Galatians 6:9).
[1] Nicola Trimble, “St Lucia: The Tiny Caribbean Island That Won Olympic Gold,” BBC Travel, August 22, 2024, https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20240822-st-lucia-the-tiny-caribbean-island-that-won-olympic-gold.
[2] Ibid.
