One of my favorite stories is that of endurance swimmer Florence Chadwick. She set many records, including being the first woman to swim the English Channel both ways. She had more attempts than successes and is an inspiring example of never giving up.
In 1952, she attempted to become the first woman to swim from Catalina Island to the California coast. After almost 16 hours of swimming in dense fog she asked to be pulled out of the water. She was only half a mile from the shore and despite the fact that those in her support boats kept telling she was close, she couldn't see the end and she quit.
She told a reporter, "Look, I'm not excusing myself, but if I could have seen land, I could have made it."
This was a woman who knew that the only way to accomplish greatness was to try after failing, so she attempted the same swim two months later and broke records by swimming it in less than 14 hours. The fog was just as dense, but this time she made it to her goal. This time she believed that she could accomplish her goals and didn't let the fog convince her otherwise.
As much as I enjoy watching other people race, I've never been inclined to participate myself. I've never had a desire to be an endurance athlete but I have been asked to endure in this life.
We are all asked to be endurance athletes in the race of life.
Some parts of the race are easier to endure than others. Sometime the fog is so thick that we are convinced that there is no end to our hardships. Some days I feel like I am improving and moving forward in this race, but other days I feel like I am regressing. It is so discouraging to feel that even when I am working hard to improve and move forward, some days I barely have the energy to put one foot in front of the other.
My health can be such a discouragement sometimes. Some days I wake up feeling alert and refreshed, but other days I wake up feeling like my body is full of lead and my mind is in a haze. Some days I feel content to spend hours a day resting; accomplishing small things, listening to audio books, working on my laptop, talking with my kids. But other days I feel frustrated with being confined to this prison of a body. I want to get up and perform any one of the tasks that I used to be able to do without thinking. Those tasks that were once simple now feel like running a marathon: exhausting and far out of reach.
On those bad days I think I can learn from endurance athletes like Florence Chadwick. I think that the only answer is to keep trying. Each day that we are given to live on this earth is a gift. Each day, no matter how hard the race is before us, we can choose to focus on the difficulty or we can choose to put a smile on our face.
In the New Testament, Paul encourages us to "Run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith." (Hebrews 12: 1-2)
I think God just wants us to keep trying. I believe that he wants us to put one foot in front of the other every day. The beauty of this life is that He hasn't asked us to run the race alone. Jesus Christ is beside us. Christ will help us when we stumble and help us when we feel like we can't go any further.
The trick in this race of life is to not get too discouraged when we are surrounded by fog. Usually, we are closer to the shore than we realize and the sun is never far from breaking through the fog. There are always silver linings of hope.
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