The current world record for the 100-meter dash is 9.58 seconds set in 2009 by Jamaica’s Usain Bolt. Now, that’s fast! So, you are probably asking as you read the title of this week’s post, “What’s the big deal about running a 100-meter race in 62.95 seconds? After all that’s 6 1/2 times slower than Bolt’s time.

Well, on November 6^th, 2021, Julia “Hurricane” Hawkins set a record for the 100 meters for her age group, finishing the race in just under a 1 minute and 3 seconds. Julia was 105 years old at the time! After the race she lamented it was cold and windy and I wanted to finish in under a minute. You go girl!

Julia first began competitive running at the youthful age of 100. Born in February 1916 in the middle of a Wisconsin winter, when she was just a few months old, her family moved and settled in a small town about 50 miles north of New Orleans. She

worked three jobs to put herself through college, graduating from Louisiana State University in 1938 with a degree in teaching. When she set her record in 2021, students she taught who are in their 80’s and 90’s were in the stands cheering her on to victory.

As I read more about her life, I was encouraged and inspired. “Hurricane Hawkins” as she was affectionately nick named continues to remain active in her community and is outside nearly every day tending to her garden that has over 75 native plants and her favorite, her beloved Bonsai trees. She’s also written two volumes of her life story, one at age 80 and another at 100. She has a cellphone – a flip phone, (I’m highly envious), and has never used the internet.

I’ve written in the past that in my opinion retirement is not at all biblical, it’s a cultural thing. Is slowing down, and winding down the right mindset to have? Is the goal of early retirement what we should be striving for and pursuing? Julia Hawkins reminds me of Caleb in the Old Testament. As He receives his inheritance from Joshua, he could have had the choice of any land he wanted. Here is his response. “And now, behold, the Lord has kept me alive, as He said, these forty-five years, ever since the Lord spoke this word to Moses while Israel wandered in the wilderness; and now, here I am this day, eighty-five years old. As yet I am as strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me; just as my strength was then, so now is my strength for war, both for going out and for coming in. Now therefore, “Give me this mountain”.

You may be thinking a mountain? You want a mountain? But Caleb, you’ve been faithful and lived your life and have whole heartedly followed the Lord. You could have asked for the choicest real estate in Israel, and you want a mountain? Yup, give me that mountain. He was ready for his next assignment in life. Caleb, Julia, you are an example of what it means to live life to the fullest. Thank you for modeling what it means to truly live. Time to lace up my sneakers and go for a run. Who knows, I may set a record one day!

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