Oct 21, 2014 | 31 Days, The Good Word
Hello, how are you, g’day and welcome to you! This post is part of a series I’m working my way through in the month of October, called Swim Your Own Race. If you’d like to start at the beginning (it is a very good place to start, after all) you can do so, right here. I hope you enjoy diving in!
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Some of the hardest practice days for me as a swimmer were the days where we were zoning in to focus on improving something very specific. With hands on resting on a kick board, we’d kick our way up and down the length of the pool, back and forth, and by the end of the session, my legs were usually burning. Or, we’d have a pool buoy between our legs, so that we weren’t kicking — we were just using our arms to pull ourselves from one end of the pool to the other. By the end of those practice sessions, my arms felt like jello.
If we decided to focus on breast stroke or butterfly, I was probably tempted to call in sick. While I managed to learn to swim fly reasonably well, I was never very strong at it, because I didn’t focus on it very often. My breast stroke was very slow and pretty lousy for the same reason — I didn’t spend enough time giving those strokes my focused attention in order to improve.
Purposeful focus creates opportunities for improvement.
As photographers, an important part of our job is focus. In a very literal sense. We shoot manually, which means instead of letting the camera decide the aperture, shutter speed or ISO to correctly expose an image, we take the time to look at our setting, and choose each of those settings. As the light changes and the scene changes, we make adjustments to compensate. The image, however, will not turn out well if we forget to focus.
We’ve had clients specifically ask us if we have the ability to take pictures where the people in front are in focus and the background is out of focus. We love to shoot this way, and it puts a big smile on our face that even if they don’t understand the technicality behind creating that sort of image, they do appreciate the beauty of choosing to focus on one particular subject and allowing the things around it to be out of focus.
While I won’t go too far into the technicality of creating images with “blurry backgrounds,” I’ll just explain that the camera setting for Aperture determines the depth of field for an image. Simply put, creating a large depth of field means choosing to allow a great amount of whatever’s in front of the camera, at any distance, to be in focus. This makes sense for landscape photography, when you see a beautiful scene and you want the camera to take it all in.
{Lots of focus}
Creating a narrow depth of field means that just a sliver of the scene in front of you — the section you choose to focus on — will be in focus, while objects both in front of and behind that sliver are not going to be in focus. Catching a couple leaning up against a tree with Spanish moss in front of them and the river behind them, you might choose a narrow depth of field, so that the Spanish moss that’s closer to the camera is blurred and the river is blurred, and your eyes are immediately drawn to the couple by the tree.
{The Belle is in focus, but the trees behind her are not.}
Careful focus will by necessity mean that some things will be in focus, and other things will not.
Without a camera in my hand, I typically have a pretty difficult time focusing. There’s usually a reasonably lengthy list of things I need to accomplish on a particular day, some written down, some floating around in my brain, or calling to me from different corners of my house. I struggle to focus on getting the one thing good and done, when there are so many things I could focus on. I usually have a good number of distractions — they’re not always bad distractions, they just are distracting.
Distraction might just be Focus’s worst enemy.
This season of writing through 31 Days, thinking about life as a race we’re all swimming has provided a more focused way for me to think about faith and write with the hopes of encouraging others to press on. And one particular Scripture has emerged as a focus point, time and time again. Here it is in the Amplified version.
Therefore then, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who have borne testimony to the Truth], let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us,
Looking away [from all that will distract] to Jesus, Who is the Leader and the Source of our faith [giving the first incentive for our belief] and is also its Finisher [bringing it to maturity and perfection]. He, for the joy [of obtaining the prize] that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God. {Hebrews 12:1-2, AMP}
These words encourage us to focus. To strip away the hindrances and distractions and to focus in on Jesus. Verse 3 goes on to explain:
Just think of Him Who endured from sinners such grievous opposition and bitter hostility against Himself [reckon up and consider it all in comparison with your trials], so that you may not grow weary or exhausted, losing heart and relaxing and fainting in your minds.
We’re challenged to just think of Him — to just think of Jesus who endured so much — so that we don’t grow weary or exhausted or lose heart.
Have you ever teetered on the edge of losing heart? Have you ever felt like it was all just too much and you had no idea how you were going to get it done or make it through? These hope-filled words promise that the very act of remembering what Jesus endured to finish His race and keep the faith will instantly inspire you to press on and finish yours well.
I read Matthew 26 again just a few days ago, and I felt bombarded, realizing afresh what Jesus went through, all the events surrounding the crucifixion. The scourging and the mocking, the stripping and beating, the crown of thorns and the cross to carry. He suffered at the hands of the very people He lived and died to save.
If we set our minds to a narrow depth of field, this is all that needs to remain in focus.
But we still have stuff to do, Caroline, you’re thinking? Me, too. How do we focus on Jesus and still do the stuff?
We slow down. We ask the Holy Spirit to meet us. God can absolutely be the focus of everything.
Paul wrote to the Corinthians:
Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. {1 Cor. 10:31, NKJV}
Whether we are changing a tire or a diaper, folding laundry or negotiating a merger, if Christ is where our hearts are deeply focused, and we can glorify God.
By acting with integrity at a business meeting, by showing kindness in line at the grocery store — we can do the stuff and still show that our lives are focused on the Name and renown of the incredible God who loves us and showed us how to live this way.
Slow down today. Recognize distractions for what they are. Ask for God’s help to slow down and focus. Focus can bring improvement. Focus can create beauty. And ultimately, your life, rightly focused will bring glory to God.
xCC
Oct 20, 2014 | 31 Days, The Good Word
Hello, how are you, g’day and welcome to you! This post is part of a series I’m working my way through in the month of October, called Swim Your Own Race. If you’d like to start at the beginning (it is a very good place to start, after all) you can do so, right here. I hope you enjoy diving in!
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An important part of improving your swimming is training with resistance. Many athletes cross-train, and might do different types of resistance training in the gym, but swimmers also often train with resistance in the pool. They pile on two or three swimsuits to add resistance, swim in panty hose (we enjoyed laughing at the guys when we did this at swim practice in high school) or put on a drag suit — a suit specifically designed to create resistance.
Resistance training forces you to work harder to make your way through the water, and strengthens your muscles in the process.
I used to love to go for jogs in our beautiful neighborhood back in South Africa. We lived in a sweet little village called Gordon’s Bay, and the running joke in the area was that Gordon’s Bay is the place where the wind was born. We moved into a big complex there with houses and apartment buildings that sat on a beautiful harbour. There were lots of boats and geese and palm trees and the views of the nearby Hottentots Holland mountains were spectacular when the sun set. There was a boardwalk and brick path around part of the harbour that made a great walking or jogging circuit.
On one particular afternoon I went out for a quick jog. The weather was a bit windy, but still nice and mild (for Gordon’s Bay anyway). There weren’t many people in our neighborhood at that time of year, because so many people who own property in the complex just use it for a month or two out of the year. So besides a very occasional hello here and there, it was mostly me, my shoes and my thoughts.
One of those funny moments showed up totally out of the blue — do you know the ones? You just start thinking, Man life is good. This is so lovely. I’m in such a beautiful place. I am glad to be alive. God is good. I kind of marveled at that precious, heart-full-to-bursting moment, and then just smiled thinking wisdom has taught me these moments never last long!
Then I turned a corner to continue the jog out onto the jetty wall which encloses the outermost section of the harbour and what should meet me but BLINDING GALE FORCE WINDS HOWLING PAST MY EARS AND ATTEMPTING TO STOP ME DEAD IN MY TRACKS or blow me into the water. And as life often does, so I was presented with the choice, to jog out onto the jetty as intended, or turn around and enjoy the wind on my back for a while. It’s an Irish proverb after all.
I instantly thought about the moment before. When everything seems to be cheesecake and chocolate soup, you will often come across a bump in the road or a fork in the path. There you meet the opportunity to take the path of least resistance, and it is especially tempting when you are afforded opportunities that will require you to work harder than you want to.
This challenge immediately translates to many areas of life: choosing to tell the truth regardless of the consequences, choosing to act according to what you know is right, instead of what everyone expects of you, or what will be easiest. It may mean fighting for a marriage that seems like a losing battle, or standing up to your boss when you know he’s doing something that isn’t right. Earlier in the day, for me it meant dealing with areas where I was holding offences against others, and asking them to forgive me. Especially if you want to live for what is right — you are consistently going to meet obstacles.
These opportunities are defining moments in our lives.
The moments when we choose the path of most resistance, because it’s the right path, are the moments when our true character is revealed, the moments when it’s clear what we’re really made of.
I pressed out onto the jetty, all the way to the end, where I could give the fishermen a good afternoon and a wave, then turned around and started heading back. Although my character may not have vastly improved by that simple decision, I knew that choosing the path of most resistance would make me a little stronger for the next run, and perhaps even able to stand when the real gale force winds blew through our little housing complex in Gordon’s Bay.
If you are swimming for greatness in the race of your life, don’t be afraid when you’re met with resistance. Resistance is a part of the process — often a place where the very hand of God is writing your story, training you so that you’ll be prepared for what He knows is further down the road that you don’t see yet. Sometimes you’ll have the opportunity to choose to face that resistance head on, or back down and choose a different route.
May these words encourage you today: Don’t be afraid to press on when you meet resistance. You may be on the precipice of a defining moment in the race of your life. The results of swimming your own race, even when it’s a tough one to swim, will be nothing short of glorious.
Oct 19, 2014 | 31 Days, The Good Word
Hello, how are you, g’day and welcome to you! This post is part of a series I’m working my way through in the month of October, called Swim Your Own Race. If you’d like to start at the beginning (it is a very good place to start, after all) you can do so, right here. I hope you enjoy diving in!
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A few years ago, I spoke about trusting God, even when a season feels like a straitjacket. Those words resonated with a lot of people. I suppose for everybody at some point life feels that way — you’re in a season that has you sitting still, your race has you feeling like you’re swimming laps, and it’s often the case that the best you can do is just trust “it ain’t forever” and keep on keepin’ on. There are often great things happening under the surface, and the restraint we feel is often part of a bigger process, whether we’re aware of it or not.
But part of the process of making it through one of those seasons is knowing when the season is done. And sometimes that’s easy to see — you get fired from the job you hated, or you get the promotion you’ve been praying for that will reduce financial stress. The sign changes and the speed limit is no longer 25. Other times, like the butterfly, you are a part of the process of wiggling your way out of the chrysalis that has held you in place while the change was taking place.
So how do you know when it’s time to wiggle?
2 Kings 7 tells this fantastic story that is almost Shakespearean humor to me. Syrians laid siege on the city of Samaria and people were quite literally starving to death. In those days, lepers were banished to live outside the city because people didn’t want to touch them, for fear of being “made unclean.” {Long explanation for that, let’s save it for another day.}
So these four lepers were living outside the city, and when times are tough and people don’t have food for themselves, it’s pretty likely these dudes were on the verge of extinction.
Until they came up with a plan.
“Muchachos,” they said to one another, “why are we just sitting here waiting to die? Obviously, if we go into the city, since there’s no food in the city, we’ll die. And clearly, if we just stay sitting right here, we’re gonna die. So why don’t we head over to the Syrian camp and surrender to them? If they keep us alive, well then sweet potatoes. But if they kill us, what’s the difference, right?”
What these dudes didn’t know was that the Lord had been at work while they were busy reasoning things out. He’d caused the Syrians to hear the sound of a big army coming, and they thought the Samarians had hired some folks to come fight on their behalf.
“The Egyptians and the Hittites are coming to lay the smack down!” they’d shouted to one another. And they took off running scared, leaving all their stuff right there in the camp, shedding layers of clothing so they could run faster.
When those lepers showed up in the camp, it was a ghost town. So {this is the part I really love picturing in my mind} they start raiding the camp from tent to tent. Check it out, guys, there’s food over here! Bro, check out this rocking new garment I just found! I’m gonna go bury this booty in the ground and come back for more! Whoo-hoo! Who’s thirsty???
Eventually they think to themselves, Dudes, we are being totally not cool. The people in the city are about to keel over starving because they think this army is still here. We better go tell them the good news before we get in trouble for being selfish punks.
So these four lepers, who nobody expected anything from, told the city the good news, and in a way, they kind of saved the day. The king sent some of his men to go check out their story and make sure it was true, and then people went out and plundered the tents — the siege was finished and the famine was, too.
Now what if those guys had just decided to stick it out and hope for the best? What if they didn’t decide to get up and at least attempt to change their fate? The time was right for them to make a move.
Call it grace, they made their move, and many people benefited from that decision.
Another story is told*, about these prisoners of war, being held hostage, imprisoned for months. Who knows how badly they’d been treated, what atrocities they’d suffered through in this dark corner of the world.
Some Navy SEALS arrived to rescue them. They flew in by helicopter, stormed the compound and found their way to the room where the hostages were being held. In this filthy, dark room, there these hostages sat, curled up in a corner, terrified.
The SEALS entered, stood at the door, and called to them. “We’re Americans, c’mon, let’s go! Follow us, we’re gonna get you out of here!” But the hostages wouldn’t follow them. They hid their eyes, faces on the floor, fearful, not believing this was real, not believing these rescuers were really Americans who’d come to save them.
There were too many hostages for the SEALS to carry out, and for a moment they didn’t know what to do. Finally one of the SEALS had an idea. He put down his weapon, took off his helmet, and curled up tightly next to the other hostages on the floor, so close that his body was touching some of theirs. He softened the look on his face and put his arms around them. {He did what none of the prison guards would’ve done — do you see the beautiful redemption in this?}
He stayed there for a little while until some of them finally looked at him, and then whispered that they were Americans, there to rescue them. Will you follow us? he asked.
He stood to his feet, and one by one the hostages did the same, eventually every one of them was willing to go. At the end they were safely aboard an aircraft carrier, free from the horrible place where they’d been held captive for so long.
Like the lepers, they had to get up to get free.
You’ve heard the saying that sometimes we stare so long at the door that’s closed we don’t see the open window. And a season can be a closed door, or a period of time where you feel held captive by the circumstances of life.
But one of God’s first promises after the Earth was flooded was about seasons:
“While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, day and night shall not cease.” {Gen. 8:22}
We can be certain of the fact that seasons will always change. There will be a time to plant, a time to reap, a time to kill, a time to heal, {is turn turn turn in the back of your head now?}
If you are swimming a race where you feel like you’ve been stuck doing laps in the same pool for way too long, you can be certain, from the very mouth of God, that no season is going to last forever.
Maybe the straitjacket that’s holding you is still tightly around you, cinched and closed; maybe the process isn’t over, maybe the chrysalis isn’t complete. But be careful to stay alert and mindful: the strings may have already been loosened, the door may already be unlocked.
So be mindful, be on the lookout, and be ready to face your fears. Recognize that you might have to get up to get out of what’s holding you. It’s hard to believe, but sometimes, the only thing holding you in the season you’re in is you.
It may be a good time to put your head down and keep swimming, but it could be the right time to lift your head above the water and look around. May the Holy Spirit meet you with the wisdom to know when it’s time to get up.
xCC
*I’ve adapted the true story above from the book Blue Like Jazz. (Thank you, Don Miller, for sharing it!)
Oct 18, 2014 | 31 Days, The Good Word
Hello, how are you, g’day and welcome to you! This post is part of a series I’m working my way through in the month of October, called Swim Your Own Race. If you’d like to start at the beginning (it is a very good place to start, after all) you can do so, right here. I hope you enjoy diving in!
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Hi there, my fellow consumer! Let’s talk a bit about worth and value today, shall we?
We are a society that is quick to put a price tag on something, aren’t we? We debate whether its ‘worth it’ to have someone else cut your grass, whether the sale on pork tenderloin is really a good price, why certain things are ‘worth it’ because our time is valuable. It seems there are very few things that don’t have a price tag anymore.
Someone recently spoke to me about the videography services our photography business recently began offering. She was very complimentary about our most recent wedding film – you should totally follow this link and watch it because it’s great – and it was nice to hear the good feedback. But, she has a daughter getting married soon and she was very disappointed that the prices “were so expensive.”
I was a little bit caught off guard and didn’t know how to respond, so I tried to explain how hard the two guys that make up our videography team work. Wedding days are usually something to the tune of twelve hours of working with very few (if any) moments to break, and this doesn’t include travel time.
The real work happens after the wedding day, though. Because there are two different camera guys each running a camera at key moments, and sometimes a third camera on a tripod somewhere, they have hours upon hours upon hours of footage to go through and trim down to our documentary edit, and even further trim down to the little wedding films we work together to create. How much is some 200-odd hours of work worth?
Then there are the cameras and (heaps of) other equipment associated with capturing the footage. The most recent purchase of our lead videographer was a camera that cost more than either of the cars that the Hubs and I drive. The image quality and performance of the camera is phenomenal, like, take-videos-in-nearly-dark-situations-phenomenal but is it that what makes it worth it?
A couple years ago, I had the privilege of building websites for a couple of wonderful ladies who are both artists. They each had very different styles, although they both primarily work in watercolors. I loved looking at the beautiful paintings they created, and I often wondered how they ever managed to put a price tag on their work. One of the ladies once told me about a particular piece that she so dearly loved that she would never, ever sell it. It was award-winning, and absolutely beautiful. Some of her paintings had a worth that she could put a price tag on, but this one was too important — to her, it was priceless.
Months ago, we sat across a table from a wonderful couple that was thinking of hiring us to capture photography on their wedding day. We enjoyed our conversation, talking about how we “do” weddings and what’s involved behind the scenes, the things that we include and where our hearts are with regard to serving our clients.
They seriously surprised us by discussing our price and saying, “We’ve looked around at a lot of different photographers and we were really surprised that you don’t charge more. Your talent is just as good as, if not better than [another photography team based in North Carolina] but their price is like $1,000 more than yours. We really feel like we’re getting value from you guys — we couldn’t believe your price.”
That conversation was certainly a shot in the arm for a couple who are praying to consistently book photography sessions and weddings, in order to run a successful business and provide for our family. But here’s the thing I’m learning, based on all these experiences:
YOU CANNOT ALLOW THE WORLD TO TELL YOU YOUR WORTH.
Sure, we can try our best to put a price tag on the goods and services we offer the world as our work. We might be in a place where someone else is telling us how much per hour we’re worth and we’re just praying they’ll see us working hard and decide we’re worth a little bit more.
I recently finished settling the first of three estates I’ve been working through for the past year and half — it’s quite a story, but let’s save it for another day. To finally meet with the Clerk of Court and close the estate, a lot of paperwork is required, and it seems to all boil down to a basic number — the net worth. What were the liabilities this great aunt of mine left at the time of her passing? What were her assets? What is the government’s share of those funds? What (if anything) is going to be dispersed among the survivors.
Is that really what we’re worth?
Friends, our intrinsic value as human beings has never and will never be linked to a number that is based on what we might have earned in our lifetime.
To the Lord, we are the painting that He would never, ever in a million years sell.
The world is quick to tell us about ways to become more valuable to the people around us, sometimes to tell us that we’re worth more, other times that we’re worthless.
Perhaps not everyone will see what you do as valuable, but you need to know that that is not an indication of the value of who you are.
If God saw us, the people He created, as so valuable He was willing to send His only Son to live and die and pave the way for our reconciliation, what does that say about how valuable we are? How priceless and precious we are to God?
And why did He do it? Because He so loved the world.
As you swim the race of your life, the world might try to put a price tag on what you do. And you might have to figure out how much what you do is worth.
But the important thing to remember is that the car you drive, the home you live in, the clothes you wear, that final figure at the end of it all — none of it has any bearing on the value of who you are.
You are loved by the God of the universe and He sees you as so intrinsically valuable, He wouldn’t give you up, even when it cost the life of His Son.
Let that thought sink in for a moment.
You are rare and precious and loved by God. And the people around you are, too.
How does deeply believing these truths affect the way you swim your race?
If you really believe them, it changes everything.
xCC
Oct 17, 2014 | 31 Days, The Parenthood
Hello, how are you, g’day and welcome to you! This post is part of a series I’m working my way through in the month of October, called Swim Your Own Race. If you’d like to start at the beginning (it is a very good place to start, after all) you can do so, right here. I hope you enjoy diving in!
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An opening of the honesty box at the expense of seeming weird is probably pretty well overdue in this series. You might already think I’m an odd cookie, but perhaps I can help you out and let you know for sure.
Kidding. I guess.
So, a certain little holiday is just around the corner here in North America, which is also celebrated in some other parts of the world. And it is my least favorite holiday, ever. I REALLY don’t enjoy diverting my children’s eyes from all the blood and gore lining the aisles of some of the stores we visit. And on a road trip earlier this month, there were awful, awful images on billboards — bloody, gory, scary people staring right off the road into the car, inviting people to visit some corn field where they could get so scared they might wet their pants.
Fortunately the kiddos were distracted and we kept on truckin’.
In our neighborhood, however, there’s a little tradition of dressing up, the families getting together to share a meal, and the kids walking around the neighborhood together, to collect their beloved candy.
I love love love getting to know my neighbors better and getting to spend time with them so we are totally keen to jump in again this year. Even though it is my least favorite holiday.
The boys have been chatting about what they’d like to dress up as, pretty much since last year, and they came to the conclusion that they wanted to be the Wild Kratts. {Two brothers, one with blonde hair, one with brown, who travel the world on creature adventures… it is very fitting for our little guys.}
So the Hubs and I finally chatted a bit about costumes last night. And I found myself strangely torn… we’re getting to the weird spot, so bare with me.
As we went to bed last night, I was praying and talking to the Lord about the fact that my children are always asking me for things, and it kind of weighs me down, and I wondered if, since the Lord’s children are always asking Him for things, does it weigh Him down, too? Like, does He ever long for, and desire intimate relationship with His children that is not based on the exchange of goods and services?
And then, thinking about what our children want versus what they need, and the boundaries we set, (but how do we find them?), I asked:
How do I find a balance — world hunger vs. Halloween costumes? How do I practically live this out?
And I realized that one issue was framing a lot of things for me. Maybe it seems weird, but it is what it is, and maybe it’s because I have seen what I’ve seen and been where I’ve been, but when I spend money on non-necessities here, I constantly think about the non-negotiables someone else is missing somewhere else.
So I try my best to live frugally and give generously, but I think there’s an underlying layer of guilt that just frames everything to do with finances. Because we have what we have, and while by American standards it might not seem like much, I know better. I’ve seen.
I asked this question and sat still, and took a breath, and then opened my Bible. I just so happened to come to a passage of Scripture, which was the next one for me to read on my reading plan, that took my breath away with the answer.
In Matthew 26, this woman anoints Jesus with oil from her alabaster jar. The oil in that jar was very costly, like a years’ wages some scholars imagine, and the disciples were indignant about it. “Why this waste? For this fragrant oil might have been sold for much and given to the poor.”
But when Jesus was aware of what was going on in their hearts, this was His reply: “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a good work for Me. For you have the poor with you always, but Me you do not have always. For in pouring this fragrant oil on My body, she did it for My burial. Assuredly, I say to you wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her.”
Two very important lessons were contained in this passage for me last night.
First, Jesus explained that We will always have the poor… Now that doesn’t mean we give up on the poor, give up on making a difference with regard to the poverty we see in the world around us. We are specifically instructed to care for the poor, and Jesus went so far as to explain to John, when asked if He was the Messiah, that, among other signs that He was the One (the blind see, the deaf hear…) He mentioned that The poor have the gospel preached to them. Caring for the poor is close to the heart of God.
However, the fact that there are poor people in the world cannot define all of our actions.
Solving the problem of poverty cannot be the cause that gets us out of bed in the morning. Nor can the environment, not can the AIDS epidemic, orphans or politics.
This is where the question comes in: What or Who Are You Swimming For?
A few months ago, I shared a post here about cloth diapering. I’d been at it for well over a year, and, at the core, it was just something I felt convicted to do for the sake of the environment and to be financially thrifty. I felt a tug about it and jumped in.
Shortly after I wrote that post, I got a sense that the Lord was telling me to take a break from cloth diapering. The Hubs also suggested that we take a break.
I didn’t want to take a break. But finally, it seemed clear that that was the Lord’s direction, so I did.
Just a few days later, the Belle came down with an awful stomach bug. While I’ll spare you the details, I will just simply explain that I was very grateful I’d listened to the guidance of the Holy Spirit and obeyed God. She was wearing disposables… glory, hallelujah!
This is the second important lesson from Matthew 26: Caring for the poor is a high calling, but following Jesus is a higher calling. Every single conviction that God has ever or will ever place on our hearts has to remain secondary to the call to love and follow Christ. Let’s put it this way:
Every conviction has to have Christ at the Center or it will be elevated above Christ in the end.
I sometimes resist the leading of the Spirit to cling to the comfort of an old conviction.
We’ve come back to Hebrews 12 repeatedly throughout this series, and guess what? this is a very appropriate moment to do so again:
Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Where do we fix our eyes as we swim the race of our lives?
Only always ever on Jesus.
We might all be surprised to realize that there are things we are clinging to in the Name of Christ, that might actually be distracting us from truly following Christ, listening to His Spirit, and daily submitting to His will.
He has to be the one that we’re swimming for — every cause, every conviction, every care has to come in second. What freedom we can find when we simply fix our eyes on Jesus!!
I’m grateful that this moment has reframed a lot of life for me. How do we decide how best to swim forward with our race?
Thank goodness it’s simple, because I’m not hungry for making things complicated. We keep on looking at Jesus.
Swim well today, friends.
xCC
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