Just as there’s a Hall-Of-Fame for superb sportsmen who distinguished themselves in assorted sports in America, the Bible contains what we would call a “hall of faith.” It is found in the eleventh chapter of the book of Hebrews—a entrancing record of names and events in which each individual modeled a faith-related achievement. Pretty fantastic stuff, isn’t it? One individual after another, acting on religion, stepped out of the ranks of the ordinary and trusted God in remarkable tactics. When you checked out the remaining 9 verses of the chapter, you find still others who stood powerful, refusing to give in when the going got coarse. The list includes folks in countless classes : kings, prophets, judges, and soldiers.

I remember reading of these heroes when I was only a boy, imagining one scene after another, thinking how great it might be to have them standing nearby cheerleading for us today.

We can’t actually see them with our eyes, but they are surrounding us, nonetheless. since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside each impediment and the sin which so simply entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that’s set before us. There they are—all those women and men of religion, who have died and gone on to their reward—but they are not lounging around heaven strumming on harps. No, they ( with many others not discussed in Hebrews eleven ) form that “great cloud of witnesses surrounding us.”.

As we carry on without them today, they inspire us to stand powerful, to run the race of life with discipline and diligence.