In For the Long Run? #5

Ron Simkins – June 24, 2025 2 Comments

In his 5th and final installment of In For The Long Run, Ron Simkins encourages us through the story of penicillin to “keep on keeping on” even when it looks like nothing is happening! May you be encouraged, as I was, by this story. –Melissa Logsdon, NCF Associate Pastor

In 1928, a Scottish bacteriologist saw a mold growing in his lab. It was growing because the lab had not been properly cleaned. He recognized that the penicillium mold had potential. It is now estimated that penicillin may have saved more than 80 million lives. Then you could add the many millions of lives that have been saved by the anti-biotics that have been discovered as the follow up to that first discovery of penicillin. But it almost didn’t happen. In fact, it wouldn’t have happened if quite a number of unheralded people had not been “in for the long run” where the penicillin mold was concerned.

For 12 years scientists in England attempted to grow enough of the mold to really help humans, but by 1940 they had only succeeded in saving the lives of four mice. Then WWII began, and the penicillin mold only survived the brutal bombings of London because some scientists decided it was important enough to save the bit of mold they had. They brought it to the US.

In Peoria Illinois, researchers from the Dept of Agriculture, the US Army, and some non-military personnel took seriously “keeping on keeping on” even when it didn’t seem like much was happening. They tried everything they could think of including molds on all kinds of foods. They even traveled to several foreign countries to do soil scans searching for the right microbes. Nothing was providing the necessary base for multiplying the mold. More time passed. No breakthroughs!

Then in 1943, an anonymous woman from the Peoria area, later nicknamed “Moldy Mary,” handed a guard a musty, mold covered old cantaloupe. Breakthrough! Immediately the mass production of life-saving antibiotics began. The lives of many soldiers in the Allied Forces were saved in 1943 and 1944. Later, members of my family, perhaps yours as well, lived instead of dying because some mostly unheralded people were “in for the long run.” Probably some of your family and friends as well. Or, perhaps you yourself?

It is not surprising that God calls us to “keep on keeping on” as people committed to being “in for the long run.” This persistence when it seems as if nothing is happening proves to matter in every area of life. Think about science, athletics, education, gardening, quilting, marriage, friendship, raising a child–every area of life. It shouldn’t seem surprising that it is an important part of spiritual growth—relating to God and relating to one another as well.

Jesus welcomes us all to the community that is “in for the long run.” Thankfully, God decided to be “in for the long run” and to “keep on keeping on” with mercy and love long before God asked us to model this important part of imaging God. –Ron Simkins, NCF Pastor Emeritus

[PS. If you wish to read more about the development of Penicillin see: Smithsonian Magazine 12/24; “A Most Miraculous Mold.” Ppg 30-32]

[PSS. I think I will move on to other thoughts in my future NCF blogs, but this topic has me thinking about a possible book about “In For the Long Run” someday—God wil
ling.]