Wooden Spoon
Throughout my high school years, my grade was split into 7 'house groups'. These groups at different times during the year would have to enter teams into various sporting events competing against each other. I so desperately wanted to play in my house group's football team but was always overlooked. Apparently I was 'better' at sports I had never played such as softball, rugby union and swimming. It's an experience in the latter sport that I want to focus on. I was in about grade 8 when the annual swimming competition was coming up. I don't remember volunteering to be a part of it but when I heard I had been selected and that I got to miss most of the school day, I didn't voice my frustrations too heavily.
I was only in one race the whole day, the 100 metre 4 X 4 freestyle race. At this point I should mention that I had done no training whatsoever, the only time I ever went to swimming pools was when they had water slides or massive inflatable objects in the school holidays. It didn't even occur to me that the other three people in my team were what you might call 'morbidly obese' or 'athletically challenged'. So time came for my race and once it started everyone dived in and like speedboats made like crazy for the other end and then back to tag the next person in. By the time the third person on my team was making his way back to me, all the other teams were just about to complete their final laps-I was about to swim 100 metres by myself with about 200 people watching me! It wasn't about winning the race any more, it was about earning a precious house point for completing the race. As my turn came up I attempted dive into the water like a gold medal winning Olympian! Instead I belly flopped into the water knocking the wind out of myself in the process. I had no time to lick my wounds I had to finish this race for that precious consolation point for our house group! In my head I was swimming with style and technique, to everyone else I probably looked like I was sort of drowning. I swam so hard that about halfway through the race I started to feel really out of breath, but I couldn't stop and stand up because it was the deep end. So I had a choice, either finish the race and earn some much needed sporting respect from my class mates, or give up. I swam across my competitors now empty lanes and climbed out shaking my head and shrugging my shoulders as if to say 'what's the point everyone's finished anyway?'
I know, inspirational isn't it? The funny thing is about that time, my Mum had got me one of those key-rings that has your name in calligraphic writing on one side and then on the flip side what your name means in Hebrew. My friends used to pay me out because the keyring said that Daniel ' never started what he couldn't finish', there should have been a disclaimer down the bottom that said [except swimming].
Get Back In The Ring
Keeping fit requires massive commitment. We hear people say all the time, 'it's difficult to loose it, but much easier to put in back on'. We all have areas of health that require constant maintenance; our physical health, our mental health, our spiritual health. From time to time we loose the motivation to keep one or all of these areas healthy, I experienced this a few weeks back when I had an extreme case of man flu for a week. Upon my recovery from the worst man flu ever, I lay in bed one night trying to get to sleep and I felt physically, mentally and spiritually flat. I hadn't been to the gym for what seemed like forever, my mind was keeping an inventory of everything that I hadn't done right in the last few days, and my heart was crossing another day off the calender in which I hadn't hung out with God or read the Bible. As I lay there, I decided it was time to ask God for some help to get rid of this 'flat' feeling.
Sometimes when I pray I feel peace, sometimes I feel joy, sometimes I remember something encouraging I have read or heard someone say. Without a shadow of doubt that night, I felt God say one word in my heart. Fight!
1 Timothy 6:12 New Living Translation (NLT)
'Fight the good fight for the true faith. Hold tightly to the eternal life to which God has called you, which you have confessed so well before many witnesses.'
'Fight the good fight for the true faith. Hold tightly to the eternal life to which God has called you, which you have confessed so well before many witnesses.'
Matthew 11:28-30 (The Message translation)
28-30 “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
Our past mistakes and current difficulties are always inventing new ways to prevent us from entering into the great future that God wants to give us. The greatest thing about walking with God has to be the realisation that God is with us always. In the context of the fight you may be going through at the moment, God is in your corner. When that bell goes for the end of that round get back to that corner so that God can restore you and prepare you for whatever the next round may have in store. The important thing in God's eyes is that we stay in the ring, whether we are winning or losing. Fights are made up of rounds and losing a round is not as important as losing the fight. So we are left with a choice, let every flaw big or small overcome us, or fight for all God has in store for us. It doesn't take a lot of character to walk away, it does to turn around and have another shot at the title.
