On May 6, 1954, at the athletic track of Oxford University in England, a 25-year-old man named Roger Bannister sprinted across the one-mile (Approx. 1,609 meters) finish line. His time: 3 minutes 59.4 seconds—a record no one had ever achieved before. His groundbreaking feat sent shockwaves through the world of athletics. At the time, sports physiologists even warned that attempting to run a mile in under four minutes could cause the lungs, heart, muscles, or ligaments to rupture, possibly resulting in death. Because of this fear, very few attempted to challenge the so-called four-minute barrier.
From the moment Bannister resolved to break through that mental and societal wall, he had to fight the daily fear that he might die trying. He trained alone, without the help of a coach or doctor—both of whom opposed the attempt. To overcome fear and solitude, Bannister vividly imagined himself crossing the finish line in under four minutes, the roar of the crowd, the flash of camera shutters. With each run, he trimmed his time little by little, until he finally achieved the impossible and set a new record.
After Bannister’s historic achievement, runners capable of breaking the four-minute mile began appearing one after another. Today, nearly seven or eight out of every ten elite runners reach similar speeds. Once someone proved it could be done, everyone else gained the confidence to follow. The barrier once deemed insurmountable disappeared as though it had never existed.
Likewise, the light of the gospel of the new covenant—first revealed in the far eastern land of Korea—is now shining brightly across the world. In the early days of the Church of God, when it was still a small house church, Father Ahnsahnghong boldly proclaimed that the gospel of the kingdom of heaven would be preached to all nations and that peoples from every land would stream to the Church. At a time when there were only a few congregations in Korea, let alone overseas, this prophecy seemed nearly impossible to imagine.
Yet today, Heavenly Father’s words have been fulfilled in remarkable ways. Such a result was made possible because Someone first accomplished what seemed unattainable. The reason we now stand on the threshold of completing world evangelism, the reason we can run vigorously toward the goal of heaven, and the reason we can endure hardships while preaching the gospel is that God came in the flesh like us and walked that very path ahead of us.
God Himself leads the great work of the gospel—the salvation of the whole world—and regards every barrier as though it does not exist. Let us cast aside fear and thoughts of impossibility. Let us run boldly and faithfully on the highway of the gospel, for God, who transcends all human knowledge and limitations, has already gone before us and accomplished it.