It is the struggle that counts....

"Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity." -- Louis Pasteur

Pasteur understood what I have come to know. It is the struggle that counts. Oh, yes, it is also good to win….but it is all about the struggle. Winning will come….

I was thinking about that quote as I watched both of the Western Texas College soccer teams over the weekend in post-season action. Both ultimately lost their games. But they were spectacular in revealing their character and tenacity. They struggled mightily and made me proud to be the president of their college.

Earning an education is all about tenacity. I was in the half of my high school graduating class that made the top half possible. My ACT score was not remarkable. It was only after I dropped out and went back to college in my late 20s that I understood the key to success in academic circles. It is all about traversing the hurdles placed in front of you by classroom instructors. My favorite phrase during the dog days of undergrad and grad course work was: “Cooperate and Graduate.”

I actually envisioned running around a track and having people place hurdles in front of me. Every hurdle was another course….another challenge that ultimately got me to the finish line.

During the darkest days of my later life when I struggled to keep my sons together and maintain my career in the face of a rather messy divorce, the lessons of tenacity once again served me. I kept telling myself----“This is going to pass. Keep your head down and grind through it.” The old axiom about “it’s like a kidney stone---this too shall pass,” often entered my thinking.

On the wall of one of our local doctors is a very vivid depiction of what I’m talking about. It is a frame with a rail spike and a shiny knife. The rail tie represents a crude spike of metal-----which through pressure and heat is transformed into---the knife. Only through pressure can we transform ourselves into something shiny and new. Dr. Henry Kissinger had a similar quote: “A diamond is a chunk of coal that is made good under pressure.”

I know that adversity has made me strong. The good Lord never gives us more than we can handle…but boy has he taken me to the rim on more than one occasion.

As I left the soccer field in Tyler, Texas Saturday night with my wife and son, I felt bad for our kids as they lay on the field, upset over losing to the top ranked soccer team in the nation. They left everything they had on the field and couldn’t fathom defeat.

Little did they know that victory will someday be theirs……and it will be directly linked to the lessons learned during their struggle on a fall night in east central Texas.

It is the struggle that counts.