Yesterday started out odd. Not terrible, not even bad, just odd. I didn't feel like myself. I had this strung-out-on-caffeine, tense, plain awful feeling. I can't adequately describe it, but it was incredibly discouraging. I attempted to fix it by confronting someone about something that has been on my mind for a while, and in an especially intense way this week. It made for an interesting conversation and was eventually resolved, but my soul still felt heavy. I tried to nap but was entirely too restless. My mind wouldn't stop turning. Finally I stopped and poured my heart out to God. I sang His praises and told Him exactly how I felt. It helped. I wasn't instantly, completely 100% my self, but I was settled enough to go on with my day. I went to the Y for to swim-which I always dread-and popped in a worship CD. By the time I got there, I was completely and totally at peace with my God. Amazing, isn't it, how worship can truly settle the spirit? I love it.
Anyway, I got in the pool and started swimming. And didn't stop. I swam the full 500 in about fifteen minutes-my first time ever even attempting to do it! As I got tired and wanted only rest, Hebrews 12:1 popped into my head: "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." Now this verse has very little to do with swimming. I think perseverance might be the only common denominator. But it got me thinking about something other than my tired body. I envisioned all the people who are rooting for me to run the race, to serve God faithfully. See, I had never pictured anyone besides the "heros" of the faith in that cloud of witnesses, the ones outlined in the preceding chapter. But I think that the cloud is so much bigger than just the faithful mentioned in the Bible. I think that it includes every Christian, as we encourage each other to finish the race. Now I could be totally off-base on this assumption, I don't claim any legit interpretive authority. But I can tell you that in the face of temptation, thinking of the people who have impacted my faith personally and imagining them cheering for me and urging me to cling to Jesus will lead to a much stronger resolve to stand firm. Imagining Jesus there with open arms, beckoning me as a father beckons his child as they take their first steps, and the path between us lined with people who have made an impact on my faith, people who have lived their lives by faith, people who have served Jesus even when the whole world opposed them, people I know and people I've read about and people I have yet to know, that is an image that makes me want to throw off the sin that so easily entangles and run the race with perseverance.
As I finished swimming and later journaled some of these very same thoughts, I was overwhelmed by this sense of God's goodness. He truly is a good God. He is mighty and righteous and faithful and awesome and loving and merciful. The truth of that is something that I hope to never, ever lose sight of.
