"Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win."

At church yesterday, my pastor was talking about this verse and if you are running a cross country race, and you trip on something and fall, do you sit there, give up and begin to analyze everything (why you fell, how fast, what you fell on) or do you get right back up and continue the race?  I have never loved running,  so all I could think about during this was ballet, dancing.  My senior year of high school, I was Clara in the Nutcracker.  After 14 years of ballet, I had made it to one of the main roles in the show.  As I was in the middle of my solo, momentum got the best of me and I fell to the floor.  If I had stayed there, the audience would have been in shock, at that point I had no choice but to get back on my feet and continue what I had begun.  Though I had fallen, I had not failed.  I was able to get back up (in fact, people said they didn't know if I had fallen or not from the speed at which I returned to my feet) and continue on.  This is the way it needs to be in our walk with God also.  How often do I begin something, on fire for the Lord, only to have a roadblock pop up in front of me, and obstacle, a tripping point?  It is times like those that I have a decision to make:  I can either give up and begin to analyze everything, which only makes me feel worse realizing that I could have avoided the trip in the first place many times, or I can get back to my feet and continue to run to my Lord and Savior.  You see, the finish line we are running to is so much better than one at the end of a marathon.  Not only do we win the prize of getting to see our Heavenly Father face-to-face, but the prize is ETERNAL, never ending.  I can't imagine a better prize than that!