THE RACE
This is a poem written by an unknown person. It
tells the story of a young boy competing in a
race he desperately wants to win. But He has
fallen down three times. And each time his dad
has urged him to get up and win the race. Read
these lines slowly.

THE RACE
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, closer all the way.
"I've lost, so what's the use" he thought,
I'll live with my disgrace."
But them he thought about his dad who
soon he'd have to face.
"Get up", an echo sounded low,
"Get up and take your place.
You were not meant for failure here,
so get up and win the race."
With borrowed will, "Get up," it said
"You haven't lost all,
For winning is not more than this___
to rise each time you fall"

So up he rose to win once more, and with a new
commit,
He resolved that win or lose, at least he wouldn't
quit.
So far behind the others now, the most he'd ever
been,
Still he gave it all he had and ran as though to
win.
Three times he'd fallen stumbling,
three times he rose again,
Too far behind to hope to win, he still ran to the
end.

They cheered the winning runner as he crossed,
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 greater cheer for
finishing the race.
And even though he came in last,
with head bowed low, unproud;
You would have thought he won the race,
to listen to the crowd.
And to his dad he sadly said, "I didn't do well."
"To me, you won," his father said.
"You rose each time you fell."

And now when things seems dark and hard
and difficult to face,
The memory of that little boy helps me in my
race.
For all of life is like that race,
with ups and downs and all,
And all you have to do to win____is rise each
time you fall.
"Quit! Give up, you're beaten," they still shout in
my face.
But another voice within me says,
"Get up and win that race"

_AUTHOR UNKNOWN
If you have read this far, you've done a good job.
Some probably ignored it because it's like a long
piece., my friend and reader,
"since we have so great a cloud of witnesses
surrounding us, let us also lay aside every
encumbrance, and the sin which so entangles us,
and let us run with endurance the race that is
set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus.
(HEBREWS 12:1-2)