False Starts

I couldn't watch. I've never been able to. My nerves just can't handle it.

I'm always so afraid that she's going to...

SPLASH

There it was. The sound I've always been afraid of hearing. Looking up, my fears were realized as I saw my daughter climbing out of the pool.

The crowd was silent. The coaches and judges walked forward, letting her know that she had the opportunity to try again.

Kahlan got to her feet and walked to the front of her starting block. Her shoulders started to shake, and it was all I could do not to run down to my baby girl and tell her that everything was going to be fine.

Instead, I watched as she allowed herself to cry for just a few seconds. I sat in awed amazement as she physically relaxed her shoulders and took a deep, purposeful breath. She lifted her goggles up (later telling me that she did that so her tears could escape from where they had pooled in her lenses) and nodded to the judges.

She was ready.

Up on the block she climbed. The announcer said, "Take your mark!" and she bent forward, her legs locked in place. The horn sounded and she dove perfectly into the water to begin her race.

She swam hard and took fourth place. The man sitting next to me, the father of two girls on the opposing team, said something to me that I won't forget. He said, "You tell your daughter that she won that race. The way she picked herself up, shook off her mistake, and went for it again...that is a winner."

We all have false starts in life. Times where we make a mistake and find ourselves tumbling into the water. But it isn't the mistake that people remember, it's what we do afterward.

Do we allow ourselves to slink off in embarrassment? Do we get angry and blame someone else? Do we give up entirely?

Getting up, dusting ourselves off, allowing a moment for sadness, then pressing on with resolve and determination; that's what God asks from us.

Let's allow our mistakes to be mistakes.


Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13-14)