I’ve been feeling like I’m fighting a losing battle for the last couple of weeks. I was feeling like no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t manage to get ahead. Then yesterday, I saw this video.

https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Living/video/year-wins-race-recovering-shoe-84614165

In the video, you see a bunch of little kids lined up at the starting blocks of a race. The starter pistol fires, and the girls all take off. But one little girl immediately loses one of her shoes. Some of the other girls had already rounded their first turn. But the little diligent racer stops what she’s doing. She puts her shoe back on and she takes off running.

But the little girl doesn’t just run. She runs and starts passing some of the other runners. She catches up to the pack, and then she passes ALL of the other runners. She gets to the finish line before anyone else, actually winning the race by quite a few lengths.

I learned a lot from that little seven year old girl today. First, I realized that a bad start doesn’t necessarily mean that you will finish last. I learned that sometimes you have to go back to the beginning in order to have the tools to run your race properly. This baby could have just continued running without her shoe, but she knew that doing so would have been risky. She knew that running well meant being equipped properly. She also refused to risk injury by running her race without the proper attire. Going back might have cost her time, but it didn’t necessarily cost her the race.

I learned that critics will try to diminish your work, no matter how impressive. I saw people online saying she had an unfair advantage because of her athletic genes. But her father wasn’t the one out there on that track. That baby earned her gold medal that day. It doesn’t matter who she was related to. She did the work.

Finally, I learned that there are people who will cheer you on, no matter how far back you are. Even when she was in last place, you could hear somebody just off camera, hollering her name. The faster she ran, the louder they got. Even they were astonished at this incredible feat, but they were cheering from the second she left the blocks to the moment she reached the finish line.

As I attempt to run the race set before me, I realize that I’ve had to go back to the starting blocks a few times. I refuse to give up. I might not finish in first place, but I have every intention of reaching the finish line, no matter how long it takes.

This baby embodies Hebrews 12:1b: And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,

Today, I want to encourage those of us who have had to start over, who have felt like we’re behind the pack. Keep running. Let’s see what the end is going to be.