Never Giving up and allowing ourselves to be helped

I participated in a triathlon over the weekend, and I was incredibly moved by an event that happened during the race. A group by the name of Cadence, which takes kids that are from difficult social backgrounds, and introduces them to training for running and cycling, which through participation in races does an amazing job at building confidence, and they have achieved some tremendous results, of kids who were couch potatoes, losing significant unhealthy weight, and doing better in school. About 20 kids entered the triathlon last year, but could not do the swim, because they never learned how to. When the event was over, the kids felt so great, that 3 of them proclaimed we want to do the whole thing next year. So a company that donates a lot of money to Cadence, agreed to pay for swim lessons for the kids, and I mean swim lessons from the very beginning, they each never swam before in their lives, the kids were 14 through 16. Over a year, they trained, and were ready for the swim on Saturday. Five guys from the company that sponsored their training swam around them for safety reasons, and about half way through the 1/2 mile swim in open water, the youngest boy had a pretty major panic attacked, and wanted to get out of the water, the main executive who sponsored the team put the boy on his back to help him calm down, and said to him, "your safe, let me carry you to the finish line,", the young guy agreed, and my friend did breast-stroke with a 200 pound kid on his back for 1/2 the race, they made it to the bike, were the kids literally dominated with their speed in biking and running.

There was an amazing lesson here, we know that happiness is only possible if we live lives that help others, when we give of our strength, but the opposite is also true, we need to be willing to allow ourselves to be helped. Our weakness is nothing to be ashamed of, and the kid did not quit, he finished the race, he allowed himself to be helped in areas where he was weak, and he made it to areas where he was strong. Allow yourself to be helped by God and by others, we do our best, and then in humility, we let God take it from there.