Dementia: a Lesson on Running the Race (Kristyn Jameson)

A few days ago, my gramma, who has dementia, was telling a story about a runner. This runner had run races before and won. He was a good runner and was running this race well, until he tripped. Laying on the ground, injured, he had a choice. He could quit or he could finish. Gramma explained that the runner decided, “I’m going to get up and I’m going to finish. I’m going to fulfill what I started to do.” She continued, “That’s me.”

My gramma served the Lord throughout her life. She ran and supported ministries, she taught and wrote Bible studies, she spoke to women and more. After telling the story of the runner, she told about her own life, saying, “I had a good life. It was going fine, really fine, and then I got dementia. So what am I going to do? I’m going to work and I’m going to get up.”

Hebrew 12:1-2 tells us to run with endurance the race set before us. It doesn’t say to run as long as circumstances are good or run when we’re feeling like it. It says to run. Having dementia is one of the most crippling things that could happen to a person. A while back, my gramma told me that one of the hardest parts of dementia was that it’s a lot harder for her to read and understand Scripture. Coming from a woman who wrote and taught her own Bible studies, I can’t imagine how broken hearted she must feel that she can’t understand the very Word of God like she did before. But she had a choice to make, just like the runner did. And she chose to get up and finish the race God planned for her to the best of her ability. She said, “I can do everything God has asked me to do and that’s how I’m going to live.”

No matter what our circumstances or encumbrance, God is asking us to run a race. As long as He is giving us time to live on this earth, we need to be running our race for Him. Like my gramma, we need to remember that through His strength, we can do everything God has asked us to do, and the next time we go through something that seems debilitating, we need to tell ourselves, “I’m the runner. I have a choice. I choose to get up and finish my race for the glory of God.”

Author’s note: some quotes were mildly edited for readability