I fell often, i rose every time

​During a break in our training yesterday, I asked a young lady how she'd landed in her new job. She told me she'd recently had brain surgery, and to aid in her recovery, she moved closer to family in the area and took on a new job.

Well I didn't see that answer coming.

I went on to discover that she's a single mom raising three kids, tackling a new job, all while dealing with some of the health challenges that are a part of the recovery from having a large tumor removed from her brain.

Yet there she was. Smiling. Participating. Learning. Standing up and tackling the world.

And there I was, glad I had asked.

Last night, I watched Damar Hamlin intercept a pass for the Buffalo Bills on Monday Night Football. Less than two years ago, many of us watched Hamlin die on a football field on Monday Night Football.

There he was, racing down the sideline, his first career interception, the crowd going crazy. But they weren't going crazy because he was racing down the sideline with an intercepted football, they were going crazy because they knew how he'd gotten to that sideline.

They knew he'd taken a hit to the chest, that his heart had stopped, that he'd been brought back to life, that he recovered and joined the team shortly after, and that now, nearly two years later, he's playing the best football of his career.

They went crazy because we all love a story of someone rising again.

Being knocked down is a story we can all relate to. Maybe it's not dying on a field or brain surgery, but we all get knocked down. And because we all know it is sometimes hard to get back up, we applaud those who do.

We find encouragement in it.

Hope.

I often think about what I'd like written on my tombstone. Not in a morbid sort of way, but when you summarize how you'd like to be remembered it challenges you to live in a way that honors that remembrance.

And today, as I'm writing this, I think I'd like it written: "He fell often, he rose every time."

Maybe you're feeling knocked down. I want you to know that people are watching, they are waiting to cheer, they are longing to see you rise again.

Rise again, so that one day when someone asks you how you go to where you are, you can tell them the story of how you rose. And you never know, when you're telling them, they may be unknowingly looking for a reminder that they too can rise.

They too may be longing for their sideline moment.

Fall often.

That's okay.

Rise every time.