Warning! This post contains spoilers from Season 4 of "Grey's Anatomy."

In the season finale of the fourth season of "Grey's Anatomy," we find George and Lexie scrambling into the office of Chief Webber. The two have somehow mistakenly managed to access the personal files of all the residents. Lexie, courtesy of her photographic memory, can't seem to forget all the bits of information she discovered while reading through each of the files. And one of those bits was that George failed his intern exam by one point...one point?! She can't fathom it, and doesn't understand why George is upset, so he explains to her:

"You just made it clear that I am still me -- the almost guy. All that separates me from the rest of my class is one point...one point? I mean, it would've been OK if it was 50 points, or even 10 points, but one? That means it was right there, it was in my hand and I let it slip away... That knowing that if I had just checked "A" instead of "B," that that one point separates me from freedom. I've been running my tail off, busting my [butt] for one lousy point."

So, let's talk about this. I don't know about you but I have certainly been in the same boat as George, maybe more times than I care for. There have been moments...mountains in my life that I have worked so very hard to climb, but just when I am about to stake my claim at the top, I lose my footing and fall back down to the bottom, back where I started. It. Is. So. Incredibly. Frustrating! Now, just because I haven't performed open-heart surgery in an elevator, doesn't mean I haven't put in my fair share of work towards little "surgeries" of my own. Something I've discovered is that it is extremely hard to accept defeat, no matter the age, no matter the task. But I don't think you have to accept anything you don't want to, especially not defeat.

Romans 5: 3-4 says, "Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope."

I really love this verse because I finally understood that the only way to succeed (in anything) is to persevere, and the only way to persevere is to suffer. In this case, I think suffering means failing an intern exam by one point.

Imagine. You are running a marathon and you've got one mile left until the finish line. While running, you stumble and scrape your knee. What do you do next? Because you have fallen, do you struggle to your feet and walk back to the start? Because you have fallen, allowing others to pass you, do you give up on the race? No. You make it to your feet, you dust yourself off, and you finish. I don't think you have to accept defeat, because accepting defeat means not recognizing how far you have already come. Just because you stumble doesn't mean that when you get up, you have completely forgotten how to run. What I have learned took George about half an episode to realize. Yes, he failed his intern exam, but guess what? He passed the second time around with flying colors. Too often, what we forget in the midst of what feels like failure, is that what we did not lose what we already have; our experience. So persevere. Fail, fall, and try again. Do not accept defeat.