Get Back Up And Finish!

A few months ago, my son Ethan tried out for the track team again.  Last year he mainly competed in long distance running events.  This year he competed in the triple jump and the 80 meter hurdles, two events he had never tried before.  He clearly did not get his track and field talents from his father.  I strongly dislike running, and then to have to jump over a hurdle on top of that, no thanks!  He made it to the district championships in the triple jump and has had even more success in the hurdles.

The interesting part of the story is that he advanced to the district championships by finishing third out of four runners.  Then in the district championships he advanced to the area qualifiers by again finishing third out of four runners.  In each race, the top four advanced to the next level, so he moved on.  This past weekend, he ran in the area qualifiers and something strange happened!  Again, he is a beginner who had never run the hurdles before, but to this point had done very well in spite of his inexperience.  

Only three runners showed up early Saturday morning, so he was guaranteed third place.  The race began and the three boys quickly moved down the track.  At the second hurdle, Ethan stumbled and crashed to the ground.  My heart sank and I immediately felt bad for him, and became concerned about whether or not he was hurt.  Before I could move, he jumped back up, climbed over the next hurdle and got back in the race.  Needless to say, he was too far behind to have any chance at winning.  He made his way down the track and finished the race about five seconds behind the other runners.  I made my way towards him and chewed him out for not tying his shoe, then hugged him and told him he did a great job this year, and would be even better next year.

As we were gathering our stuff to leave, his coach came around, and after inquiring, we discovered that even though he stumbled, fell and finished third (last), because he got back up and finished the race, he still advanced to the area finals!  Had he not gotten back up and completed the race, he would have been disqualified and would not advance.

We live in a day and age where it is so easy to just give up and not finish what we started.  Give up on the marriage, leave the team before finishing the goals you set out to accomplish, whatever the case, most of us simply give up rather then get back up from an embarrassing mistake or painful experience.

What is my point today?  Simple!  If you have stumbled and fell in the course of this life, don't quit, don't give up, get back up and finish what you started.  Stumbled and didn't finish school, get back up and go register.  Messed some things up in the marriage, get back up and go fix it.  Made a mistake and messed the career up, go brush up the resume up and find a new job.  Whatever the circumstances are, no matter how severe your case is, in most cases, people will not remember whether or not you stumbled and fell, how long it took you to finish, or what all the negative circumstances were.  In most cases, people will simply remember whether or not you finished!

So to you who find yourself in a position that I have been in many times, I encourage you to "Get back up and finish" and ponder the words of Ernest A. Guest:

When things go wrong as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all up hill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest if you must, but don't you quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don't give up though the pace seems slow--
You may succeed with another blow,
Success is failure turned inside out--
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far;
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit--
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.