MTC Week #58 - Hill #3

The summer before my senior year in high school, I trained with the Viewmont Cross Country team. I had been running on my own for years previous, but a good friend of mine was on the team and I thought it would be fun to be on it with him. The training was rigorous, long, and demanding and there were plenty of moments I felt discouraged. Most on the team had been on the team for years and could run faster and run longer. 

Thankfully, the Lord helped me keep it all in perspective and the thought came to me that I should just set a goal to improve each and every race--even if it were only by a few seconds. So that became my focus. 

My second race that season was one of the hardest experiences I had gone through in my life up to that point. I had been warned beforehand that the course was was full of lots of twists, turns, and HILLS. Add 90 degree weather to that reality and things were looking rather grim. 

The gun sounded and we were off! With what seemed like hundreds of people in

front of me, I found my pace and just kept putting one foot in front of the other. I made it up hill #1 but my pace slowed as I tried to get more oxygen. I barely made it up hill #2, and by the time I got to hill #3 I was just about to keel over. Hill #3 was near the end of the course and after I descended, I was nearly without hope. But, looking up, I saw the bleachers and the oblong race track which served as the finish line and I was determined to keep going. 

I didn't know, though, how I was going to get there.

As I somehow made it to the track, I saw my coach off in the near distance. He looked at me and knew I was struggling. He motioned for me to keep going. Looking back now, I think "Why, with all of the other team members racing, did he focus on me?". But he did. And that was what willed me forward. 

As I crossed the finish line, I collapsed right into his arms. I remember looking up and seeing a big smile on his face. And amidst the gasps for more air, and the tears of weariness I realized I had made it. I had done a hard thing. And I was grateful for a coach who knew I could. 

As the choir continues to prepare for ACDA, memorizing 26 songs, I feel kind of like I'm in that race again. The seasoned singers know many of them already, but even they are feeling the pinch. One commented "It's daunting. I can't imagine what it's like for you newbies." 

Umm....yep! Exactly.

But newbies and seasoned singers alike, I know we'll get there. These next two weeks are going to be like hill #3 and the final stretch to the finish line. While we don't necessarily have a coach waiting for us at the end (though Bro. Wilberg and Bro. Murphy will certainly be smiling as we make it to these concerts having prepared well), we realize, rather, that God is helping us every step of the way. Note by note, lyric by lyric, rhythm by rhythm. 

I remember a week after running that cross country race, having a feeling like I wanted to do it again. How can that be?!, I wondered. I almost died! But accomplishing hard things feels good. It's all worth it. 

President Spencer W. Kimball once said: “There are great challenges ahead of us, giant opportunities to be met. I welcome that exciting prospect and feel to say to the Lord, humbly, ‘Give me this mountain,’ give me these challenges.”

So with the excitement of that quote, I say:  OK hill #3. We're ready for you!  

Until next week, God be with you.