Winning the Gold

There is no Gold Medal Olympic Runner who sprang out of the womb knowing how to run, or how to win races. Every Gold Medal Olympic Runner who ever ran started out unable to crawl. They had to learn how to crawl, then learn how to stand, then learn how to walk, then learn how to run. It took years to learn these simple things.

Once they learned these simple things after years of watching and wanting and trying. They had to learn how to race. They had to learn how to train so they could compete. They did not just run once, decide they were fast, and win a Gold Medal in the Olympics. They dedicated years of their lives, making sacrifices, training in a way that often dictated when they awoke, when they ate, what they ate, who they could be around. It took time and commitment and dedication to win a Gold Medal.

We may not all be Gold Medal winners or competitors, but we did learn to crawl, and stand, and walk, just the same as they did. The swiftest Gold Medal winner struggled with balance and gravity just like I did when I was learning to stand and walk. The most graceful Gold Medal winner began just as clumsily and awkwardly as I did when learning to walk. Just like me, they initially fell down more than they took steps. Then they learned to take a couple of steps before falling, then after time they could string steps together. And no matter how many Gold Medals they have won, there are times when they still lose their balance, or trip, or fall.

No one rational or sane would ever look at a child learning how to walk and say that the child was crippled because it fell down. In fact, rational, sane people declare the opposite. They say that the child is learning to walk, even though the child has fallen down again. Even though the child cannot walk, the very fact that the child is trying to walk is used as evidence that the child will be able to walk, and walk as well as anyone else.

So the moral of the story is that falling down is the proof of trying, and that trying is evidence of future success. A child is not a hypocrite when it is trying to learn how to walk and falls " the child is learning, the child is experiencing the process, and growing as a result, and the child will one day master walking.

The part of the process that is often forgotten is that walking is a process of throwing ourselves off-balance and then catching ourselves before we fall down. That is the only way to walk! That is the only way to move forward! We have to deliberately and courageously throw ourselves off-balance, toss ourselves out of our comfort zone, and risk crashing against the ground, or we will never walk, never move forward, never get anywhere.

After I learn how to do this reasonably well, and if I keep doing it, I will begin to look graceful as I throw myself off-balance. I will begin to direct the paths I can and will take by risking a fall. More than that, I begin to become comfortable doing it -- walking is becoming comfortable with being off-balance and trusting that we will not crash. I am so good at walking now that I no longer notice that I am off-balance when I do it!

Occasionally there is a misstep. Occasionally I fall. But it is so rare that when it happens, I can joke about it.

So the spiritual lesson is this: nobody is born and baptized and immediately a saint. It takes time to learn the basics. We have to learn how to crawl in faith, stand in faith, walk in faith, run in faith, and some will win Gold Medals in faith. We will fall. We will make mistakes. We will crash hard sometimes, but that does not make us hypocrites or mean we are not succeeding -- it just means we are learning. The fact that we fall is the evidence that we are trying; the fact that we are trying is proof that we will one day walk in faith as well as anyone else.