It's alright to fight

I was reading Bike, a cycling magazine, today when I came across an article entitled “Still Life, The recovery of Tara Llanes.” Last September, Tara Llanes was competing in a dual slalom bike race when she crashed and broke five vertebrae in her back, paralyzing her from the waist down.

I have been watching her blog and reading about her tough road to recovery since her accident. What a terrible thing to have to deal with at such a young age, or for that matter, any age. As I continued to read the article, I saw a picture that particularly struck a chord in me. It was a picture of her room at the Craig rehab center where she was rehabbing immediately after surgery. On the wall, in the picture, next to the hand washing station was a sign that read, “Everything will be ok in the end. If it’s not ok, it’s not the end.”

So many times we live our lives as if we are trying to catch that moment where everything was trouble free. The perfect day, the perfect dinner, the perfect words spoken to the perfect person in our perfect lives. We go on thinking that is the goal of life: to achieve those sensational, trouble-free moments again. Because of that chase, we are left feeling like we are on the down side of life more than on top of it.

Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble…But take heart! I have overcome the world.” Funny thing about that Jesus guy; He always gets it right, doesn’t He?
Sometimes I wonder if we have all gotten soft. Have we no desire to fight it out? After all, what’s life without a good fight? It is part of our human history, but more often than not, we just want it the way we want it. Our very souls demand we fight! That we don’t give up. We are not quitters: whether it is against an enemy who would take our freedom, a disease that wants to steal our days, or a catastrophic injury.

The best part is that we are free to fight. Free to believe that we can. In fact, what are we if we do not? We have and will always be inspired by those who fight. It was Winston Churchill who said, “Never, never, never give up” and he brought a country to its feet to achieve what seemed impossible in defeating an aggressor that was determined to overwhelm them.

Maybe today you have had one of those moments where you have just wanted to give up. There is no glory in quitting, but there is in following. The one I am following told me to expect trouble in this life. But he also said, “Take heart for he has over come the world.” The sign read. “Everything will be ok in the end. If it’s not ok, it’s not the end.”

I know what the end looks like. It’s not here. It’s out of this world. Go for it Tara! It’s worth the struggle.







In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an
invincible summer.

-- Albert Camus (1913-1960) French Writer