At the 1988 Olympics, Dan Jansen was given a good chance to win gold medals in speed-skating. In his best event, the 500 meters, he crashed and ell coming out of the first turn. Later, in the 1,000 meters, skating a gold-medal pace and two-thirds through the event, he caught a skate blade in the ice on a straightway and tumbled into a heap.
Years of discipline, training, and hoping went sprawling on the ice with him. He must have been devastated. But he handled it with such grace. "What's happened in the last week has absolutely put things in a different perspective." Jansen said, "and I don't feel as bad as I would have."
You see, his 27-year-old sister had died earlier on the day of his first race. It put his failure to win an Olympic medal in perspective for him.
Whatever you have done is probably neither as wonderful nor as dreadful as you are tempted to think it is. Someone else can do better. Many others have done worse. God is till on his throne, and life goes on.
Source:
Pulpit Helps , November 1996, p. 8.
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