Life's greatest tragedy is not to fall down, it's to stay down. The greatest disaster in life is not to fail, it's to park there, and say 'What's the use?'

Ethel Waters was born to a 12 year old negro girl who'd been raped at knife-point. She grew up in back-alley neighbourhoods, a tough little profane girl, who shop-lifted to feed herself when she was six. Married at 13 to an older man, she failed at that too. But she used to sing and dance before a mirror, and eventually overcame her past... You know the song which helped make her famous: 'If his eye is on the sparrow I know he watches me!'

Enrico Caruso thoroughly messed up his first audition for the La Scala opera. 'I have failed, maestro,' he said to his teacher. 'No, no, little one,' the teacher consoled, 'We make our climb more slow. Some day La Scala will come to us!' Whole continents came to him...

'Forgetting those things that are behind,' says Paul. If you want to succeed you must be prepared to fail. John Mark failed. But later Paul highly commended him. He came back from his failure: so can you.

Lord, in the fight I'll sometimes be struck down. Remind me then of the famous definition of a hero: 'He gets up when he can't'. Amen.