By Danny Minton

Truthfully, it is not easy to come up with something worthwhile to write about each week. If someone is going to take the time to read something I write, I want it to be worth your time and possibly be something you need to make it through the day.

I’m the type of person who looks for things in life or comes across reading things when something pops into my head to share. Sometimes inspiration doesn’t come, and it’s tempting not to write or give up for the week. I often write a page, hit delete, and start something else. It’s easy just to quit. As I pondered not writing this week, something I saw earlier in the week suddenly came to mind.

This week, I sat down in a rocker in our backyard to take a break from cleaning things for the summer months ahead. I entertained myself by watching the golfers as they approached the 10^th green, many of them struggling to make a putt. It’s a challenging hole, and most struggle to make a par before moving across the bridge to the far side of the pond and the 11^th tee box. 

After watching a couple of foursomes, an elderly golfer made his way up the fairway. He was playing alone and could only hit the ball a short distance, but he made a good shot that left the ball a couple of feet from the hole. I watched him as he drove his cart over the bridge after making his putt, stopping at the tees closest to the next green. He walked to the tee box, placed his ball on the tee, and drove the ball about 50 yards and well short of the par three green. He slowly walked back to his cart to move on to make his next shot. However, I was mistaken about what he had in mind. He turned from his cart and returned to the tee with another ball. Again, he struck the ball, but this time, he hit it in the 70-yard range, further than the first but still 30 yards short of the green. 

He picked up his tee and once again trekked to his cart. Then, to my surprise, he turned around and returned to the tee box with another ball. He teed the ball up and took a swing, knocking it up on the green and only ten feet from the pin. He was playing alone and could have gone up and played his first ball, but I could see in his determination that he must have told himself, “I can do better than that.” He wouldn’t give up getting the ball onto the green on his drive, succeeding on his third try. 

The scene reminded me of the phrase, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” It’s a simple antidote expressing how we should never let our failures make us give up on things we are trying to accomplish in life. I learned early on in life that not everything would go how I wanted, and there would be times when I had to try again to achieve a particular goal.

The Bible encourages us to keep trying even when things do not produce the desired results. Paul uses this with an analogy in his first letter to the Corinthians. “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.” 1 Corinthians 9:24 (NASB). In other words, keep on trying until you succeed.

Everyone gets discouraged at times. We get caught up in the negative things in our lives and give up too easily when we should keep trying to turn things around. Giving up is more demanding on us than trying and failing. There’s a scene in an old, animated movie that I’ve mentioned in another writing, but I feel it’s worth repeating here. It’s from the film, “Return of the King,” based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings.” The Hobbit Samwise has taken on the quest to accompany his friend, Frodo, to return an evil ring to its place of origin to be destroyed.

Frodo and Samwise have become separated. Samwise is determined to return to his friend. The task is long and dangerous. “One tiny Hobbit against all the evil the world could muster. A sane being would have given up, but Samwise burned with a magnificent madness, a glowing obsession to surmount every obstacle, to find Frodo, destroy the Ring, and cleanse Middle Earth of its festering malignancy. He knew he would try again. Fail, perhaps. And try once more. A thousand, thousand times if need be, but he would not give up the quest.”

The message I want to share and have done so many other times is “Never give up.” Things may not always go how we want, but life is like the Steeplechase event in the Olympics. It’s a journey full of twists, turns, smooth lanes, and challenging obstacles. However, as Paul encourages us, run in such a way that, in the end, you win the race. The prize is worth it.

Danny Minton is a former Elder and minister at Southern Hills Church of Christ