A choice is made every single stroke of a swimmer’s race. Each pull revolves around welcoming pain or rejecting it. A swimmer enters a fight the second the tips of their fingers enter the cold water, and they question if the place, the time, the personal record is truly worth fighting for. They wonder if the relief the body is aching for wins or if the rightfully placed perseverance does.
The choice seems obvious, does it not? Choose to fight. Choose to fight for the achievement of goals, for the personal bests, for the success. Isn’t it what all of the hard practices have been meant for? Isn’t it what all the early practices have intended to help with?
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If the choice is so obvious to do what is right, why don't more swimmers choose it?
Because choosing to fight is hard.
Coaching my high school team, most of my swimmers would tell you that the right decision, the best decision, is to work as hard as they can all the time. In fact, they would tell you that they know they can’t achieve what they want to achieve without doing so. It’s not a secret that this is what should happen. But I’m fairly sure most of them would also let you know that choosing to do so is the hardest decision to make.
One of our favorite videos to watch as a team is called Rise and Shine (Welcome to the Grind). It’s one of our favorites because it seems to know exactly what we are going through. It’s telling us that it gets that we have to make a hard decision on a daily basis. It understands the blood, sweat, and tears that goes into trying just to swim faster.
The narrator asks a question that challenges us as a team: “For what is each day but a series of conflicts between the right way and the easy way?"
Convenience, efficiency, and feeling good seem to challenge the benefits from working hard, pushing through pain and perseverance on a daily basis. The conflict between what we should do and what we want to do is ever present. The easy way out shouts quite loudly as we determine what the right thing to do is.
And so we begin to try and figure out what the right thing to do is.
One time I had a very difficult decision to make. It was difficult because I knew what needed to be done, but I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t want to because I knew it was going to be hard.It was going to require heartache, sadness, and many tears. I fought the decision for a few weeks because I was trying to figure out if there was a way around what I knew had to be done.
I decided to make the decision I did simply because I knew it was going to be the best decision. I knew it was going to be healthy for me, healthy for the other people involved, and ultimately it was going to be the decision that brought Jesus the most glory.
And isn’t that what this is all about? Bringing our Savior--our Creator--glory?
As a follower of Jesus, knowing what is right is no secret. But man, it is hard to follow.
Sometimes I get frustrated with what the Lord asks of me in His word. It seems so hard to do what He wants me to do. I think that sometimes it feels like choosing not to follow what he says is easier. Honestly, I think sometimes it is. But, is it better? Is it right?
He asks us of these things not to make our life difficult, but instead to give us an abundance in life.
But we as humans so easily forget this truth. We forget what doing the hard thing can do.
For instance:
Having the hard conversation with someone so that peace and resolution can be had. Isn’t is so much better to strive for peace rather than sit in bitterness and resentment (Hebrews 12:14-16)? I know that initiating that conversation can feel impossible and scary, and it seems easier to just not talk, but, oh my friends, it is so worth mending.
Confessing a sin that has been held secret for a very long time. Isn’t is so much better to receive forgiveness and experience freedom rather than be confined by chains of shame (1 John 1:9)? Wow, I know this is hard. It goes beyond humility and seems like a risk that is too much to handle. It seems easier to just keep holding on to the secret, but trust me, bringing things to the light is better.
Loving the person that is extremely hard to love. Isn’t it better to offer grace and love to the difficult people rather than treat them like they are less than us (John 13:34-35)?I think many of us have those people in our lives who are difficult to love. Especially when those people don’t necessarily do a good job of loving us back. But what kind of example can we be for Christ’s kingdom when we choose to love regardless of the difficulty? An example of what Christ did for us.
The examples could continue. And even each of these examples could be discussed in even more detail.
The battle is hard. It’s real. And its worth fighting.
I know my example of my decision making is vague, but I’m sure you can relate to some situation in life where you knew what was right and had to make a choice.
In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Albus Dumbledore says “there will be a time when we must choose between what is easy and what is right.” I love this quote because doesn’t it speak to what we’ve run into as humans?
It’s easy to choose what’s easy, and it’s hard to choose what is hard. But maybe instead of letting what is easy or difficult drive our decisions and actions we instead let what is right, true and good be the force that moves us daily.
So, my friends, let’s get back in God’s word and keep learning what is right, true and good. Let His truth drive us forward. Let us not be afraid to do what is difficult when it’s the best thing to do. Let us be encouraged to persevere, endure and overcome.
