The Race by D. H. Groberg

Early in my career, my mentor, friend and boss at the time, John Hall, gave me a poem to read that was related to perseverance. D. H. Groberg titled this poem, "The Race" and it has been an inspiration to me still today. On days when I've needed a 'pick-me-up' and on the normal, mundane days, this poem has stirred my emotions to illicit tears.

Sometimes I imagine that I am the young boy and 'the race' is my life. Of course 'the dad' is played by God. The 'falling down' is my sin and the 'the getting back up' is my asking God for His forgiveness. I wonder what you think?

The Race
by D. H. Groberg

"Quit, give up, you're beaten"
They shout at you and plead
"There's just too much against you
This time you can't succeed".

And as I start to hang my head
In front of failure's face
My downward fall is broken by
The memory of a race

And hope refills my weakened will
As I recall that scene
Or just the thought of that short race
Rejuvenates my being

Children's race, young boys
Young men, how I remember well
Excitement sure, but also fear
It wasn't hard to tell

They all lined up so full of hope
Each thought to win that race
Or tie for first, or if not that
At least take second place

The fathers watched from off the side
Each cheering for his son
And each boy hoped to show his dad
That he could be the one

The whistle blew and off they went
Young hearts and hopes afire
To win and be the hero there
Was each young boy's desire

And one boy in particular
Whose dad was in the crowd
Was running near the lead and thought
"My dad will be so proud"

But as they speeded down the field
Across a shallow dip
The little boy who thought to win
Lost his step and slipped

Trying hard to catch himself
With hands flew out to brace
And amid the laughter of the crowd
He fell flat on his face

But as he fell his dad stood up
And showed his anxious face
Which to the boy so clearly said
"Get up and win the race"

He quickly rose, no damage done
Behind a bit that's all
And ran with all his might and mind
To make up for the fall

So anxious to restore himself
To catch up and to win
His mind went faster than his legs
He slipped and fell again

He wished then that he had quit before
With only one disgrace
"I'm hopeless as a runner now
I shouldn't try to race"

But in the laughing crowd he searched
And found his father's face
That steady look which said again
"Get up and win the race"

So up he jumped to try again
Ten yards behind the last
If I'm going to gain those yards he though I've got to move real fast

Exerting everything he had
He regained eight or ten
But trying hard to catch the lead
He slipped and fell again

Defeat, he lay there silently
A tear dropped from his eye
There's no sense running anymore
Three strikes, I'm out, why try?

The will to rise had disappeared
All hope had fled away
So far behind so error prone
A loser all the way

"I've lost, so what", he thought
I'll live with my disgrace
But then he thought about his dad
Whom soon he'd have to face

"Get up" the echo sounded low
"Get up" and take your place
You were not meant for failure here
"Get up", and win the race

With borrowed will "Get up" it said
"You haven't lost at all"
For winning is no more than this
To rise each time you fall

So up he rose to run once more
And with a new commit
He resolved, that win or lose
At least he shouldn't quit

So far behind the others now
The most he'd ever been
Still he'd give it all he had
And run as though to win

Three times he'd fallen, stumbling
Three times he'd rose again
Too far behind to hope to win
He still ran to the end

They cheered the winning runner
As he crossed the line first place
Head high and proud and happy
No falling, no disgrace

But when the fallen youngster
Crossed the line, last place
The crowd gave him the greater cheer
For finishing the race

And even though he came in last
With head bent low, unproud
You would have thought he'd won the race To listen to the crowd

And to his dad he sadly said
"I didn't do too well"
"To me you won", his father said
"You rose each time you fell"

"When the Sand Runs Out"

"When the Sand Runs Out" is a song I heard yesterday from the Rascal Flatts' album, "Feels Like Today." I was tooling down the road, heading to an appointment with a client with my Zune up at almost full volume (which is not very loud by the way). I remember thinking about the many things that have occupied my mind over the past few weeks... my good friend's untimely death, my cousin's stepson's tragic death only a day later, hosting my wife's extended family from Ohio, my upcoming Sunday group lesson titled, 'Living with Dying,' and my business strategy for this visit with my client (occasionally when I'm working I also think about work). Then this song by Rascal Flatts comes on and I thought that isn't it funny how death puts a unique perspective on life?


I don't think I've ever heard the song before, but the first line grabbed my attention right away. It goes, "I spent the morning at an old friend's grave; Flowers and Amazing Grace, he was a good man..." Immediately I thought of my good friend, Kevin. Kevin died on 7/6/08 unexpectedly in his sleep. He had spent the last year or so climbing his way out of a particularly low point in his life and then died suddenly one Sunday afternoon while taking a nap. He was 47.


My attention focused back on the song. What would I do differently today if I knew how much sand I had left in the hourglass that is my life? Would my perspective change a little or a lot?


The fact is that none of us know exactly how long we have on this earth. Life is truly a gift and I question sometimes how thankful I truly am that God has blessed me with this day. When I think about Kevin or my cousin who lost his stepson to a lightning strike on 7/7/08, I refocus my perspective and I feel like I live the kind of life God intended. But there are other days when the little things like traffic jams get to me, I'm quick to anger, and overall feel like I'm living a mundane existence. How can I ensure that I live a rich and full life every day?


When former NCSU basketball coach, Jim Valvano, was diagnosed with cancer, he gave many motivational speeches related to the fight against this dreaded disease. A disease that would ultimately take his life. He believed there are three things that you should do every day. He said, "Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something special.”



The chorus for the Flatts' song is...

"I'm gonna stop lookin' back and start movin' on

Learn how to face my fears

Love with all of my heart, make my mark

I wanna leave something here

Go out on a ledge, with out any net

That's what I'm gonna be about

Yeah I wanna be runnin'

When the sand runs out"

I agree with the saying, 'Life's a journey, not a destination.' But that doesn't keep us from living like there's no tomorrow.

Introduction...

This weekend my middle daughter who is eight, asked me to retell the story of how her mother and I met. As I recounted with vivid memory of how we were first introduced by a mutual friend at a high school dance on January 14, 1989, the story quickly evolved into a math game for her that went something like this...

Kaelyn: So how long did you date before you got married?

me: Seven and a half years.

K: How long from the time you met until Hailey was born?

me: Nine years.

K: How long from the time you met until I was born?

me: Eleven years.

K: (thinking) So Hailey is two years older than me. How long from the time you met until Abby was born?

me: Fourteen years (now I'm thinking... fourteen years? has it really been that long?).

K: So I am three years older than Abby.

me: Uh-huh. (Feeling confident in her mental math abilities, Kaelyn wanders off and I'm left to continue the math).

Wow. It doesn't seem possible that in a few months I will have known my wife for 20 years! Sometimes I feel as though I'm still 20 years old. Where did the time go?

One of my new favorite authors is Rob Bell, who is a Christian pastor of the Mars Hill Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He participates in this DVD series called Nooma and in one of the lessons titled, "Today," he suggests that despair begins to set in when we long for the past, thinking that our best days are behind us (for more on Rob Bell or this series, visit http://www.nooma.com/) . When I was going through that mental math exercise with my daughter, I began to long for the past a little. I wanted to hold all my daughters again as they were babies.

Bell goes onto say that if you need to celebrate an accomplishment that happened years ago, then celebrate. If you need to apologize for something, apologize. If you need to grieve a loss, then grieve. But afterward, move on. Then he succinctly sums it up, "when we're still holding onto how things were, our arms are not free to embrace today."

How about you? Is there something in your life that is keeping you from moving forward? Is there someone you need to apologize to or forgive? Do you feel like you are fully present for the ones you love so that you are truly living without any regret?

How we think about time and reference it in our lives is a clue to whether we fully experience the best that life has to offer... today.