The Swim Practice Where God Is My Coach

From a young age competitive swimming consumed many hours of my life. I have swam countless laps in a pool, down and back, down and back. Time after time. Why did I do this? To become better. Better at swimming. Of all things in life, swimming. I can remember practices where I would work so hard that I could taste puke in my mouth. This was the true feeling of pushing myself to the limit. Practices like that were hard and painful.  I poured my determination in to the repetition of down and back because I knew that I would improve, I would eventually PR and ultimately beat out everyone else if I just put in the effort and time. And time and effort is what I invested in this sport that now, holds little meaning in my life.

In my walk with God right now I feel like I have been going down and back. And like in swimming, I feel tired, like I want to just give up and get out of the water. That would be a lot easier. In James 1 it says, “ Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.” I have had to remind myself of this many times lately.

In January, I prayed that God would point out the areas in my life that need improvement. I have also asked a few people that are close to me to tell me when they see weakness in me. I honestly had no idea what I was getting my self in to when I prayed this. It feels like I am in the middle of the most grueling swim practice of my life. I can’t even put it in to words what it feels like. The constant prodding that comes from God is like no other feeling I have ever felt. He has put people in my life that I have to learn how to work with and deal with.

In any good swim practice, the coach writes a workout that consists of different sets that focus on different aspects of swimming. Maybe it is a sprint set to increase speed or a distance set to improve endurance.  Here are the different sets in my workout with God as my coach:

*The Warm Up-Identifying the problem areas. This part has not been that difficult. I knew a few in the back of my mind. My good friend also has told me what she thinks. Sometimes her pointing them out hurts, but I asked for it so I am thankful for it.    
*The Trust Set-I have known that for a long time that I was not good at trusting people - or even God for that matter. I think this issue stems from seeing betrayal in my parents relationship as a young kid. I honestly find it easier to just do things my self rather than rely on others to do them just because I don’t know if I can trust them to get them done. Because I just would rather do things my self, I get tired and burned out. I can’t do everything. The other side of this trust set is me trusting that God has a plan that is better than mine. I like to be in control. I don’t just like to be in control, I have a need  for control.  I am slowly learning that God has a great plan but he doesn’t reveal it all at once. He slowly shows me     where to go next. I don’t get to see His plan in its entirety. I have to learn trust.
*The Mercy Set-Mercy is defined as “compassionate or kindly forbearance shown toward an offender, an enemy, or other person in one's power;” so I looked up forbearance and found this, “abstaining from the enforcement of right.” I have always loved to do what is right and I have never understood why people could be okay with messing up. I am not saying that I am perfect - because I most certainly am not. When people wrong me, I don’t show them mercy like the Heavenly Father has shown me when I mess up.
*The Grace Set-Grace and mercy go hand in hand. Grace seems like a prettier word for mercy but it differs in that when God had grace on us, He already knew we were gonna mess up but He was ready to love us anyway.
*The Dealing Set-I let too many people annoy me way to easily. I am being forced to ‘deal’ with this in my life from what seems like all aspects. From the girls I live with, to people at school, and to the people I serve with at church. People are a fact of life and I need to see that God has put them in my life for a reason and I need to show them love, no matter if I feel like it or not.

I also know the feeling of finishing a race and knowing I gave every practice, up until that meet, my all. When my hand would hit the wall, feelings of accomplishment would flood over me. I would know that my hard work had paid off. God has a plan for me. My hard work in Him is going to pay off. One day, I will be glad that I am learning these lessons now. Like James 1 says, I will become “mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.” I love God’s promises.