Put Your Head Down, Close Your Eyes, Then Look Up

Sweat beaded on my forehead and my legs were aching. I was two and a half miles into my cross country 5k. It was only the second meet of the year and things were not looking good for me. For the first two miles I had kept a good pace and had kept up with the group of people that I needed to run with. But once I hit that two mile mark I found that a gap had formed. I now lagged fifty or so feet behind the people I needed to run with.

I was trying my hardest to close the gap, but it didn't seem like the distance was shrinking at all. My legs were tired, I was hot and sweaty, and in my head I was starting to give up hope. I pushed the negative thoughts away, but they rushed back in. I knew defeat was about to settle in and that I would soon be dropping farther back. For some reason I dropped my head and closed my eyes for just a second. I looked back up and saw that I was much closer to the people in front of me that I had been a second earlier.

My end of race killer instinct set in and I took off. Only five seconds later I found myself blazing past the people ahead of me and onto the next pack of runners. As I finally crossed the finish line I found that I had picked up about ten spots during the last quarter mile of the race. I felt satisfied with my results and was glad I had looked down for just one second.

That cross country race took place almost three years ago. Yet it has had an important place in my life ever since then. Not because I ran a super fast time, won the race, or anything like that. In fact I had many races that were better than that one. The race is important because of the lesson I learned. When the going had gotten tough I had taken a second to pull myself away from the race and forget what I was doing. When I returned I was better able to see the results of my work and I now had a new drive.

Oftentimes in life we feel as if our hope is about to flee. We feel that our legs are churning as fast as they can and that we are covered in sweat. Yet we notice that despite our best efforts that we are growing tired and that we do't seem to be getting anywhere with our efforts. At those times it's easy to give up hope and to settle into mediocrity. I myself have done that many times and when I was finished with my task I always felt bad that I hadn't tried harder.

So instead of giving up on what we are doing we need to remember to put our heads down, close our eyes for a second then look back up. We can always put our heads down, close our eyes and pray to our Heavenly Father for strength to overcome our obstacles. Then we can read our scriptures and ponder over where we are at. As we do this we can come to find that our small efforts are slowly leading to our goal. It usually isn't until we take a step back that we can actually see how good we are doing.

In fact on a very long day of my mission I wrote in my journal "Keep calm, keep working, and when you look up you will be surprised how far you've come." I wrote that over a hundred days ago and that promise is true. I've been surprised how far I've come on my mission. Especially when it seemed like days were just dragging on.

If we all just put our heads down and work at a consistent pace then I know that time will pass and we will reach our goals. It just takes time and effort and relying on our Savior Jesus Christ, who will magnify our efforts and help us through hard times and help us to be more than we are.

And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order.

Mosiah 4:27