At the risk of annoying some of you, I’m going to talk about the swim meet I’ve been training for once again. It’s tomorrow!
I started training back in the middle of January. While I have seen some improvement, I also realize I’m not in the best shape for a swim meet.
It hit me today and I shed quite a few tears around noon as I worried about how I might do on Saturday. I want to do it, but I feel so nervous. So many things could go wrong (and there I go borrowing trouble, like I wrote about last week).
I talked it through with Gary as we ate lunch and I felt a little better after that.
Really, it comes down to two choices:
Stay home and not risk embarrassment and failure.
Go to the meet and swim my heart out.
And that’s what I’ll do, of course, even though I’m scared out of my mind.
I’m glad I’m writing about it this week because it fits right in with mental health—something I choose to focus on quite often here.
Anxiety and depression can tempt us to not follow through. The butterflies in our stomachs, the trembling in our fingers, and the knocking of our knees can make us want to hide at home and stay away from the goals we’ve set.
It’s too hard! I’m not ready! I need more time!
But if we give in to those thoughts, we might miss out on something wonderful. Sure, it might not go perfectly, but we’ll learn from our experiences and next time it will go even better.
Each time we choose to follow through it will give us one more victory to look back on with pride.
I’m going to follow through and swim tomorrow, even if I don’t win a single race.
“Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means.” (2 Corinthians 8:11 NIV)
Are you good at following through? What tempts you to give up? How can focusing on God help you see things through until you complete them?
