Grace

When I was in high school, I ran on the cross country team. The way that cross country is scored is based upon individual and team points. The main runners on the team are the top five individuals on your team that cross the finish line. If one team has five individuals that cross the finish line before your five finish crossing the finish line, the other team wins. You could have a person on your team take first place overall, but your team would still lose if your fifth person crossed the line in last place. Therefore, there is a big responsibility for the fifth person.

My first year of cross country, I was the fifth runner on my team. My first year of XC, the coach of the team had predicted the best girls team he had coached in years. It was really my first year of running ever, and I worked hard to do my best.

Throughout the season that year, my team had done fairly well--beating out all of our competition fairly easily with the exception of one main competitor, the Trojans. The Trojans and my team and been neck and neck the whole season. As we entered state qualifiers, we were continually reminded of the importance of focusing to get in front of the Trojan runners.

The state qualifiers course was at Freeman Park. I had never run at Freeman, and it looked easy. It was only grass and a few hills. I thought that I would be able to run this course without a problem.

Being the novice runner that I was, I started sprinting when the gun went off. Sprinting for 3.1 miles for a novice runner is nearly impossible. I quickly found myself slowing down and in pain. What was even worse was to count the girls ahead of me from the Trojans. One, two...four, and finally, five girls from the opposing team were ahead of me. My coach encouraged me to go faster to get ahead of the Trojan girls, but I could not.

Tears fell my from my eyes as I painfully finished the race. The other top four runners from my team had finished in amazing time...and I had let them down. I was so upset that I left with my family before the results of the race were announced. I knew that I had caused my team to not qualify for the state race. As the park faded from view, I pondered my running mistakes and how those mistakes had hurt my entire team.

A few miles down the road, my cell phone rang. One of my teammates was on the line. All I heard was screaming and could barely make out the words that were being relayed to me. "WE...STATE! WE'RE GOING TO STATE!" I could barely keep my composure! How? I had counted the number of girls ahead of me...how?

Later that day, as I reunited with a few of my teammates, I told them of what I had seen and asked how it was possible for us to still go to state with my errors. To this day, I do not fully understand, but I was told that the number four runner on my team had done something that caused my team to have just enough points to beat out all of the other teams. It was because of the fourth runner that my mistakes were compensated for and we were going to state.

Years after this experience, I have constantly pondered how closely this story fits with that of the Atonement. In 2 Nephi 25:23, we are reminded that "it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do." In this life, we are all inexperienced runners trying to cross the finish line to qualify for exaltation. Since we are inexperienced, we fall short at times and make mistakes that can cause us to not qualify individually for our exaltation. But, it is through the grace available through the Atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ that our mistakes can be compensated for in order for us to qualify. If we turn to Him with a broken heart and contrite spirit, He will not only compensate but teach us how to improve. I am so grateful for the grace that helps me in all of my imperfection to have a chance to qualify for all of the great eternal blessings provided by my Savior.