Mr. Murray's Reflection

Following tonight’s Super Bowl clash between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles, usually one victorious player is deemed the Most Valuable Player, earning accolades for his outstanding contributions. Like football, in life people can also perform amazing feats, which not only uplift others temporarily, but also foster positively life-altering interventions.

 

My mother’s devotion to Saint Jude – the patron of hopeless causes – was always a major component of her daily prayers, for she had “numerous novenas going at the same time.”  Yet, St. Jude became positively real for me back in 1987 when I chose to focus my running on not only completing the Boston Marathon in under 3 hours (the original qualifying standard for males 39 and under), but also to raise money for a charity: “Run Boston for St. Jude Hospital,” Ma replied after I sought her advice.

 

She then educated me on this amazing hospital curing cancer in children, and no parent ever receives a bill; in addition, Ma gave me the founding history: a struggling actor/comedian named Danny Thomas prayed to St. Jude and boldly stated, “Show me my way in life, and I will build you a shrine.”  Thomas soon found work across three media platforms – radio, film, and television. Despite many critics predicting this hospital would never come to fruition, Thomas worked tirelessly to fulfill his promise, which did occur on February 4, 1962, with the opening of a children’s hospital that first concentrated on leukemia and then other diseases.

 

Today, St. Jude Children’s Hospital “is leading the way the world understands, treats and defeats childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases” (St. Jude website). None of these accomplishments would be possible now and, in the future, if one man, one believer in Jesus Christ, one devotee to St. Jude lacked faith!

 

Successfully completing the 1987 Boston Marathon with a finishing time of 2:57:50 and raising a little over $2,100 in donations, I began my partnership with both St. Jude Hospital and Ma’s patron saint. By 1989, I embarked upon new endeavors in multisport – duathlons (run-bike-run) and triathlons (swim-bike-run); and I started saying multiple novenas on a daily basis.  Thanks, MA!

Today, I train and compete as a Saint Jude Hero, someone committed to the life-saving work occurring each day for kids worldwide. In my own small way, I am helping to continue what Danny Thomas, a real-life Most Valuable Person, created three years before I was born: “Finding Cures Saving Children” (Saint Jude website).  Amen!