Standing Tall

You've probably seen it by now. It took less than ten seconds to locate a copy of it on line. Representing the US at the Miss Universe pagent, she strides out confidently, ready for her big moment. Following some of the most beautiful women in the world, ready to stand up before a somewhat hostile crowd: smiling, looking her best... and boom, down she goes in one of the most public falls one can imagine. Nowhere to hide... nowhere to run... doesn't begin to cover how she must have felt in that spit second- watch closely and you can see the fleeting desperation flash across her face. And then, as quickly as she went down, she was up again: no apology, no self deprecating humor, no tears and no running off stage, she was up and walking beautifully, smiling as if nothing had ever happened, ready to move forward.

Her resolve carries a powerful lesson for each of us; in her moment of public humiliation, she didn't quit.

We all fall... thankfully, for most of us, it happens in private. However, many of us have walked that painful path of failure that others know about, too great to be kept a secret, we relate, even as we laugh, to the lady waxing the stage in public with her posterior. It's important to remeber a few simple realities. She had been brave enough to labor through countless pagents that nobody cared about. When no one was watching, she trained, practiced, studied and did her best to live a life that could suffer the scrutiny of being on one of the world's biggest stages. She gave her life to get out on that stage- it was a huge risk -only people willing to work hard- to take a risk- ever make it as far in any field of endeavor.

Falling is not failure. We don't have to worry about her future. Anyone who works hard and disciplines themselves to go the long haul succeeds- even when they fall. A friend is running a marathon this week. That's 26.2 miles- a long way to run by almost anyone's standards. I've run ten or twelve marathons myself so I took the time to email him some unsolicited advice: it's one of the rewards of crossing the finish line- giving advice. The truth of the matter is, in the big scheme of things, his race is already run. The long term training that goes into marathon running: early morning runs, eating right, long runs with friends, time away from family, pain... those are the real rewards of the race. I pray each runner in the race meets their personal goals- but the reality is that while others were sleeping, when a world was unaware that a race was being run, they were up and wearing a number- ready to run, they'd paid the price. There's no failure on race day... only rewards.

If "Life is a stage," the floor must shine brilliantly from all the times we've hit it hard, the lesson this young woman teaches us is a lesson worth holding onto for life: it's not about the fall, it's about getting back up again and going forward. My prayer for us today is that we're ready to scuff up life's stage with risk ready feet- and that when we wax it with the wrong end -we're ready to get back up and start all over again. She did it. We can.

blessings,

Eric