Do you ever have one of those days
when you want to give up?
You want to throw in the towel
and say, “Enough is enough. I give up.
I just want the world to stop
and I want to get off.
I just don’t feel like fighting any more.
I’ve had it. I give up.”
I was having one of those days
when I happened to see a story about
the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance.
Jimmy Valvano, basketball coach
at North Carolina State University, was in
a battle with adenocarcinoma (cancer).
In a speech at the 1993 ESPY Awards
ceremony and before a nationwide
television audience, he brought a howling
teary-eyed Madison Square Garden
audience to its feet.
He closed his speech by imploring,
”Never, never, never, never give up!”
Jimmy V died two months later,
fighting to the very end.
Each year the Jimmu V Award is given
to a member of the sports world who has
refused to give up and has overcome great obstacles
through perseverance and determination.
I read through the list of award winners,
one courageous person after another.
It humbled me to read what human beings
do to keep fighting and refusing to give up.
It changed my attitude about wanting to give up.
I was inspired to keep fighting.
I was reminded that there’s something
within each of us, a God-given strength,
that we can draw upon in the face of obstacles.
If we listen carefully to what
the “strength” within us whispers, it says,
“Never, never, never, never give up.”