There are times when our circumstances will knock us off our feet. It will cause us to express ourselves in this fashion: “What’s the use of trying again?” The Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians to “be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord, your labor is not in vain.” You should never allow your circumstances to stop you from renewing your mind and trying again despite your past failures.
Failure doesn’t mean you will never succeed. It just means it may take longer to overcome your circumstance. John Wayne is my favorite western character. In one of his movies, he coined this phrase: “You are going to spend the rest of your life getting up one more time than you are knocked down, so you had better start getting used to it.”
Life can bring on many hardships and circumstances where we find ourselves frustrated and wanting to give up. Success is about never giving up. It is about getting up one more time than you were knocked down. You have no idea just how close you may be to what you want to achieve or overcome. But you must be willing to get up one more time, even when it seems hopeless because you have tried so many times before.
Quitting is a guarantee that you will never resolve your situation. You will never get a promotion, a degree, medical attention, a house, marriage or anything else. Author Ben Stein said, “The human spirit is never finished when it is defeated. It is finished when it surrenders.”
When you have experienced failure, you are actually in a better position to achieve success than people who have not. When you fail and fail again and again and you keep bouncing back and learning from your failures, you are building character, strength, tenacity, experience, and wisdom. People who develop these qualities can sustain their success, unlike those for whom good things come too early and too easily.
Thomas Edison, a famous inventor, created the carbon telephone transmitter, light bulb, and phonograph. It took 1000 unsuccessful attempts before he created the first light bulb. Edison said, “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” So, let nothing stop you from trying again and again to accomplish your goal and Never Give Up! Never Give Up! Never Give Up!
By Dr. Walter Ghosten
chaplain@lhp.net
