3 words, never.give.up. This life that we live is a fight to the finish. I was watching the Olympics the other night and they flashed back to 2008 where one of the female runners who was doing hurdles stopped almost toward the end of the race, fell to her knees and cried. She didn’t even finish. I said, “Wow, that is horrible. She didn’t even finish and now she is being ‘glorified’ as a strong runner?” I heard a voice inside. How many times have I fell down during the race to my knees and sobbed? Poor me, I did so horribly, I failed, I didn’t have the victory. And I stop right there in the middle of it all. But God… He encourages us as His children to get back in the race. To train harder for the next go around. To face forward with our eyes on the prize. To be determined. To realize the fullness we have when we are running as opposed to when we are not. Sometimes it takes a coach, an encouraging peer whom God will place in our lives to get us on track. But many times, as I have found in my own life, it is God Himself. He knows it all, He knows us through and through better than we know ourselves. And when we are straining and agonizing as we feel pain and pressure in our race we have to remember the victory in order to press on. The other side of the line. Never.Give.Up.