Category: Growing in Trust and Capability

Posted on

Time To Get Back on the Horse

September is a gorgeous month for skydiving. The summer heat has lost its oppressive force, but you can still be comfortable either in shorts and a tee shirt or with a jumpsuit on top of that. It’s noticeably cooler up top when you get out of the plane, but it’s not cold enough to need gloves or extra layers yet.

Now, for those of you that don’t know me, I’m ordinarily a pretty laid back guy. If you see me lose my temper, something like, huge has probably happened. For some reason though, skydiving was a parallel universe for me. I was driven. I wanted badly to be good at freefall skills so I’d be able to turn formations deftly and be able to zip around the sky with other jumpers. When I tried learning certain maneuvers though, I’d try too hard, and I’d be more likely to lose my cool when something didn’t go the way I planned.

Goofing off with a buddy while waiting for our ride to altitude. It’s important to keep the mood light!

Early on I would jump out of the plane and my body tensed up. I’d go rigid not because I was nervous about plummeting toward the ground, but because I was overthinking the instructions and was too focused on trying to get it right. In freefall though, to get your body to do what you want it to do, you need to have your muscles very relaxed. Tensing your muscles causes all different kinds of problems for you. This wasn’t like kayaking, weightlifting, or skiing, where adrenaline or extra power can be a big help; this was an entirely new type of physical challenge…you had to stay chill when the wind is so loud you can’t even hear what someone six inches away from your face is screaming at you.

On one jump, I don’t even remember what happened…I just remember that even though I landed safely I was furious at myself for not getting the freefall objectives right. I mean like, livid. Before my canopy had even completely settled onto the grass, I ripped off my helmet and threw it on the ground, then started kicking it around for good measure. Oh, man, was I ticked! I was ready to get in my car and leave.

There was one instructor at the drop zone, Darlene, who really understood people and what makes them tick. She saw my little tantrum and talked with me about what happened on the jump. After our impromptu debrief she said something surprising. She told me that I needed to get one more jump in that day before I left.

It was surprising because on busy days you had to get in line to get a ride up to altitude; if people wanted to leave early, that was only good news for everyone else. I didn’t want any part of it, I was just feeling sour and wanted to take my ball and go home. She took a look at the schedule of remaining flights and found a way to get me another jump before I left that day. I jumped again, and it went much better than my helmet-kicker.

Darlene knew that if I left on the heels of a bad jump, it was quite possible that I might never come back. She understood that in order for me to flip the script in my own mind, I needed to walk out of there with success more fresh in my memory than failure. It didn’t need to be a stellar jump. It didn’t even need to be a great jump. It just had to be enough, in my mind, to crowd out the memory of a horrible jump.

It may not be skydiving, but you might be in the same boat today. You could be about to turn your back on the thing you thought you were meant to do.

Maybe you already walked away from it. You started walking and you didn’t even turn around to look back, because you want to convince yourself that this isn’t for you.

Well, even if you stepped away, what if you gave it another try? Do you have more to lose than you have to gain? It might just be worth another shot.

Posted on

You Change; Your Strategy Should, Too

I’ve written about kneeboarding before; it was one of my favorite things to do during my last summer in college and the summer after that.

There were a few of us that loved kneeboarding and wakeboarding. We’d get together and see what kind of tricks we could start doing. While it was fun to do solo, it kind of lost its thrill after a while. We got the idea to put two kneeboarders out there at a time. Then we tried two kneeboarders and a wakeboarder. We were able to do a lot more stuff that way; jump over each other’s ropes, switch ropes, hang off the same rope, it gave us more options.

At the end of one summer we were able to get four of us going at the same time. It was two kneeboarders, a wakeboarder, and a guy on a round piece of plywood. The attempt didn’t last very long, but it was fun to be able to say we did it.

We had a lot of fun on the river during those summers, but time marched on and we all went our separate ways.

Fast forward 16 years, and I had the opportunity to try kneeboarding at the same place.

Obviously a lot had changed, and I was a little nervous about it. Now I had a wife and three kids, along with less pliable joints, but I didn’t want to pass up the chance to give it a try. It ended up being a lot of fun, at least for a while.

As we got going, I did some stuff to help the muscle memory come back. After getting comfortable, I did a few basic tricks. Getting settled, I started jumping the wake a little bit. It all started coming back.

There were two main differences between kneeboarding as a young guy and kneeboarding as an “old man.” The first was that my workout routine had changed significantly since I had last gone kneeboarding. In my early 20s I lifted smaller weights at higher repetitions to help me have more endurance throughout the day in a physically demanding job. Years later I had switched to heavier weights at lower reps, so my arms had the power to handle more weight for short lengths of time. The second major difference is that, obviously, 16 years of wear and tear makes the joints less able to absorb impacts. These days my joints do a lot more grinding and popping than back when I did a lot of kneeboarding.

This time around I started out by doing the tricks of my old routine, because that was the mindset I was in. I didn’t realize it at the time, but the types of “tools I had in my toolbox” had changed. As it dawned on me that I had more power available to play with, I started getting more aggressive in the way I cut back and forth, how I followed the boat’s turns, and how I approached jumping the wake.

The cartilage degradation became apparent as I became bolder. Stronger arms helped me launch higher into the air upon hitting the wake, but it also set up my knees for higher impacts when I came back down. I didn’t realize it until it was too late. I cut the water hard, hit the wake hard, and pulled hard, and I think I got higher than I had ever jumped before, but I also landed harder than I ever had before. The kneeboard and I bounced off the water, and I immediately lost interest in continuing the run. The board caught an edge and I flipped over, into the water. I limped the rest of that vacation. (I would totally go kneeboarding again though.)

Unquestionably, it was fun up until that point. The lesson I learned that day was to be realistic about the tools you’ve got, and don’t just assume the tools that used to be there will always be available to you. Sixteen years separated my last two kneeboarding runs, and I instinctively began my latest round by assuming I had the same capabilities I had on the one before.

I’m afraid we might do this as Christians, too, sometimes. We all change as the years go by. The reality might be that we’re no longer willing to take the risks we used to take, but we believe we haven’t changed. Once willing to give of our time, talent, and treasure, we might double up on one of them and skip one of the others, even though God’s Kingdom may benefit the most from the thing you’ve backed away from.

Maybe the opposite is true; you may be in a better position right now than you’ve ever been before to give more of all three. Perhaps something that used to be a major struggle for you in your Christian walk is no longer a problem or a temptation for you, and you can now use your experience to help others with the same issue that was once so challenging for you.

If you’re a Christian, ministry might not be your profession, but you’re in the business of ministry somehow. Time waits for nobody, though. You gain and lose abilities. The tools in your toolbox change over time. Your strengths and weaknesses may switch places, and the goal is to adapt and pivot so that you back away from the areas where you’re losing ground and you’re always using your best skills to glorify God. Vigor and energy are here for a short time and can be crucial to getting something started, but a powerful prayer life often escapes young men and women. With life experience comes wisdom that augments the youthful enthusiasm that’s either on its way out or is long gone.  

Learn from the past, but don’t live there. You’re always moving forward. Any given moment in your life is only a snapshot on a timeline. Your life’s experiences have helped lead you to where you are today, and the things you do today will shape your tomorrow. You are on your way to becoming the person you’re going to be. The question is…are you pivoting to your new strengths as your old ones fade?

Posted on

I Hear What You’re Saying, But…

If I told you I’m a parent, you’d probably believe me, but it’s not the same thing as seeing evidence that I’m a parent.

I came home from work one day and saw a Frisbee on the roof over our garage. We often have misspelled words and stick figures drawn in different colors of chalk on our driveway or sidewalk. In the summertime I often see little bits of broken water balloons on our porch. Inside the house, the living room is seldom “all the way” cleaned up, even if we tell the kids to make it “Mommy and Daddy mode.”

We have kids, and there are signs of them everywhere. (It’s unquestionably a good thing, even though sometimes there are a few too many signs.)

These things, in and of themselves, are not proof that I’m a parent. To an observer though, these signs make the notion a lot more believable.

There’s something similar when it comes to Christianity. If you claim to be a Christian, yet you haven’t changed at all from the way you were before joining the faith, something’s probably not quite right.

Galations 5:22-23 describes the qualities that a Christian will develop over time. The author’s not saying that only a Christian could have these qualities, but, in the same way that the Frisbee on my roof is probably there because of a kid rather than an adult, a Christian’s life will contain signs, indicators, or evidence of the faith they’re claiming.

When someone accepts Christ, at that moment the Holy Spirit sets up shop in that person’s life. What does that mean? It means that from that moment on, God starts working on changing your attitude to be more like His. I heard someone say once that God accepts you for who you are, but He loves you too much to leave you that way.

My mom used to have a tee shirt with a three-by-three grid on it. Inside each box was a picture of some kind of fruit, but instead of labeling them “grapes” or “watermelon,” they’d say things like “patience” and “self control.” These nine things (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control) collectively make up what the Bible calls “the fruit of the Spirit.”

Having these fruits is not something that happens quickly. Fruit takes a long time to grow. You can’t put in a weekend of intensive Bible reading and prayer and have these things spring forth in your life; it takes time. The outcome of being a Christian and continuously pursuing a relationship with Christ is a life that is characterized by these nine fruits.

Consider taking a closer look at these traits. Is there one (or several) that you’d like to develop or increase in your walk with Christ?

Happy birthday Mom! Love ya!

Posted on

When You Can’t Even Breathe

At Air Force Basic Training, there’s a stretch where recruits spend time in conditions that simulate a field deployment. Instead of focusing on Air Force customs, academics, how to salute, march, etc., trainees focus on some of the fundamental skills necessary for functioning in a combat zone. It’s here that trainees first fire weapons, learn about field hygiene and first aid, etc.

One of the more memorable activities is learning how to use a gas mask. Trainees spent the greater part of the day learning how to properly don a gas mask, when to put on a chemical suit, and generally experience how cumbersome it becomes to perform routine tasks while wearing a heavy suit in hot weather and trying to take a drink from a canteen while wearing a gas mask.

We spent most of the day learning how to use the equipment properly, and the culmination of the experience was “getting gassed.” We put on our equipment and filed into a square room that had a pedestal in the middle of it. Each group that went into the room stood with their backs against a wall. There were some instructors that gave us directions and then came around to inspect the way we had donned our masks. At the end, one of the instructors walked to the pedestal in the middle of the room and activated some tear gas on it.

It’s a little unsettling to see a big white cloud rising and filling the room. Tear gas…isn’t that the stuff they use on rioters? You start to instinctively hold your breath, but you eventually decide to give this gas mask thing a try. You take some little breaths just to make sure you’re not going to start coughing like a maniac. The air smells weird, but you can breathe it. You don’t seem to have any reaction so far, so you start breathing deeper. Before long you’re breathing just like you practiced earlier in the day, and you’re able to function in a chemical environment.

Then the fun part comes. It would’ve been nice to experience an environment like this, then walk out the door and say to the instructors “thanks fellas, that was pretty cool to see.” If we had done that though, the lesson wouldn’t have been cemented into our minds. In order to make the lesson stick, the instructors wanted us to understand how well our equipment was protecting us. To help us do that, we filed toward the exit door in pairs. Still in a gas-filled room, we were directed to remove our masks and provide a verbal response to a question the instructors asked us. They wanted us to have to breathe in the stuff our equipment had been protecting us from, and this aspect of the training helped us remember the experience in a much more vivid manner. I know I wasn’t able to finish answering the instructor before I started coughing, and he waved me out the door and into the fresh air.

It’s one thing to know something in your mind, and it’s something different to experience it. There were plenty of other times in the Air Force where I donned gas masks during exercises, but that was the only time I’ve ever had to use a gas mask to actually protect myself from something that threatened harm to my body. The more you use the equipment, the more comfortable you become with it.

It’s the same thing with following Christ. We “practice with our equipment” by building a relationship with Him. That means spending time together: reading the Bible, spending time in prayer, and removing unnecessary or harmful things from your life.

As you walk with Christ, you’ll find that He gives you assignments to do. Rather than giving you something you think is easy to do, however, He likes to challenge you. Those challenges stretch you and make you lean on Him to do the things you can’t. Sometimes they’re physically easy to do, but they take a certain boldness to complete. Others are completely beyond you, but you find that once you step out in faith, the pieces start falling into place because He’s paving the way for you. Much like the gas mask training, the trust you build in this endeavor enables you to overcome the worry and preoccupation of “will this work when I need it to?” As a result, with His power and support you’re able to operate and excel in environments where you can’t even breathe on your own.

This is my one hundredth post! Many thanks to my faithful readers, and to those that just stumbled upon this site. I hope you’re somehow blessed by what you read here! Feel free to share on social media or email, or leave a comment. You can also email me at tim@daregreatlynow.com.

Posted on

It’s Okay, He’s Got Me

Little kids are a hoot, man. Mine are all old enough to swim on their own at this point, but it’s fun to think about when they were younger and the things they’d do at the pool.

As a dad, one of the fun things to see is the trust your kids place in you. The pool is a place where the trust you’ve built with your kids becomes most evident. For a kiddo that’s 3 or 4 years old and doesn’t know how to swim yet, it’s a scary thing to walk to the edge of the pool and jump into water that might be too deep to stand in. It’s a big deal to jump off the side of the pool into Daddy’s arms! You look at them and you can almost see the wheels turning. It’s like they’re thinking “Daddy’s right there, but will he catch me if I jump?”

It’s so fun to stand in the pool, looking up at them, and say “go ahead, I’ll catch you,” and to see them think it over. I have three kids, so I’ve seen a few different reactions. There’s always some hesitation; sometimes it passes quickly and other times it takes some additional coaxing for them to commit to the jump.

It’s fun to watch their eyes, too. They look at my outstretched arms, gauging whether or not they think they can make it. Once they decide they think they can do it, they look me in the eyes, seeking assurance that I’m focused on them and will be there when they need me. My next move would be to give them a non-verbal green light. Sometimes it was a silent nod. Other times it was a big smile. With intense focus, they’d stick out their little tongue, crouch, and take a flying leap into Daddy’s arms.

It’s a simple, but beautiful picture. As the father to my children, I cherish that trust that we’ve developed together. They each placed so much trust in me that each one of them were willing to step outside their comfort zones to do something beyond what they could do on their own. Building trust is something that’s done over time, but can be shattered in an instant. As they each belly-flopped their way into my arms, it was so fun to join in their celebration with exclamations, smiles, and laughs. Almost right away they wanted to do it again, and then again. Building further on that trust, I was able to back farther away from the edge, or move into deeper water, and they’d be okay with making the leap because they knew. They knew “it’s okay, he’s got me.”

Your Heavenly Father takes pleasure in seeing you demonstrate your trust in Him, too. Nothing brings Him a smile quite like seeing His children trust Him and leap with both feet into the challenge He’s given to them. Like an earthly father, He coaxes the child according to what he or she needs. Maybe it’s a silent nod, a big smile, or in some cases, a push from behind.

Give Him an opportunity to build more trust with you. Summon up your courage and concentration, stick out your tongue, and take that flying leap. He’s got you.

Finding encouragement in these posts? Subscribe above to have every edition of “Dare Greatly Now” delivered to your inbox!

Posted on

What Do You Use as a Crutch?

I won’t be posting on Independence Day, so I’ll do it today and then not again until next week. Have a safe, enjoyable holiday, and happy birthday, America!

The summer after I graduated high school I worked at a Christian conference center, where a bunch of teenagers worked on the organization’s summer staff. One day after work there were a bunch of us just hanging around with nothing to do. The part of the campus near the staff quarters and the dining room had a circular decorative fountain outside of it, but it needed repair and had been drained. All that was left inside it was nasty rainwater with decaying leaves in it.

We had a guy on staff, Dave, who was very nimble. He hopped from outside the fountain to the pedestal in the middle, and then hopped out the other side, making it look easy. Well shoot, I thought that was pretty cool, so I had to give it a try, too.

It turns out I wasn’t quite as nimble as Dave. I got to the middle without much trouble, but I couldn’t slow down fast enough to stay on it. Caught in that awkward spot of “should I try to stop all the way, or keep going and hop out again?”…I ended up making a leap for the exit. The problem was that since I had already tried to stop, this wasn’t a full-blown attempt to reach the other side and I didn’t have enough momentum to do it. Only the first few inches of my foot landed on the other side, and the full weight of my body came crashing down on this part of my foot, overextending my ankle beyond its normal range.

This resulted in a complex injury that was a combination of a strain, sprain, and possibly even a break (I don’t remember, but it hurt). I ended up being on crutches a lot that summer.

I had a lot of appointments with an orthopedic doctor after that. The injury was the sort where it didn’t need a hard cast, it just needed some immobilization, so he gave me an air cast that I could take on and off. In one of the earlier visits that summer he told me “once you can tolerate it, you can start putting some weight on it.” I thought that was great news, so I grit my teeth and walked out of the office after that appointment without using my crutches. I went slow and limped a lot, but in my mind the doctor wouldn’t have said that if I hadn’t been making some good progress.

I’m not sure if it was stubbornness, ego, or if I was just grossly misguided, but over the next few weeks I ditched the crutches and got comfortable being uncomfortable (and slow). I got where I needed to go, I just took a little longer to get there. The next time I went to the doctor, he seemed a little perplexed why the healing wasn’t progressing as quickly as he expected. Once he found out about my “grin and bear it” attitude, he set me straight. I went back on crutches.

It’s amazing how much better your injuries heal when you give them what they need. I remember being super excited toward the end of the healing, when I was once again off crutches. After using my bad leg more or less as a peg leg when I walked, it felt great when I could once again use muscle in that foot to propel myself forward, rather than only using it as something to balance on mid-stride while I waited for my good foot to hit the ground.

It makes me think…what else in life do we do to sabotage ourselves? By the stubborn actions we take, are we delaying the healing of some other literal or figurative injury? Are there areas in which we should be further along than we are at this point? By neglecting a practice of some sort, how have we shortchanged ourselves? This could be anything from not reading God’s word on a regular basis to harboring a grudge or bitterness to not taking the next step to heal a wounded relationship.

Now’s the time. Set aside the ego, stop pretending it’s getting better, and pick up the crutches again. Are you really gaining anything by clinging to a “grin and bear it” attitude? Take that step you know you’re supposed to take. It’s the only way the real healing begins.

Posted on

Today’s the Tomorrow We Talked About Yesterday

One day when my youngest daughter was four, she asked Mommy if she could have a lollipop. It was too late in the evening to let her have it though, so my wife told her she could have one the next day. Sure enough, our little one remembered the next day:

“Mom? Is it tomorrow?”

“Yes, today’s the tomorrow we talked about yesterday.”

It’s an off-the-cuff, but profound saying. “Today’s the tomorrow we talked about yesterday.” When you think about it, each of us is the product of our past choices and experiences. You are the person you are today because of the things you’ve gone through.

If you could go back and change something somewhere along the line…erase a mistake…capitalize on the knowledge you have now…you’d have a new set of experiences. You’d no longer be the person you are.

You are the person God knew you’d be at this point. He can, and (if you let Him) He will use you to do great things for His kingdom. All the mistakes, all the missed opportunities, along with all the high points, milestones, and celebrations…they helped shape who you are right now. Because of who you are, with your placement and background, there’s something that only you are equipped to do for God’s glory.

In the same way, the things you experience today will shape your tomorrow. This includes not only the things that happen to you, but the situations you place yourself into. The choices you make hold tremendous bearing over what will happen to your future. Make sure you’re making good ones.

Tomorrow will soon be here; will your future self be thankful for what you’re doing today?

Posted on

Who’s Going Back?

Photo courtesy of angryjogger.com

After Air Force Basic Training, I moved on to become a candidate for survival instructor. Since there was a high wash-out rate for that job field, we first had to complete a physically demanding screening course.

Before we could even begin the course, we had to spend a few weeks or even months building up our physical stamina. After having just graduated Basic, most of the people that arrived were very skinny and had not had any serious exercise. By the time people graduated the course, they would need to do hundreds of pushups a day, be able to run a few miles within a certain time limit, and be able to ruck four miles with a 65-pound ruck sack on their back in under 60 minutes.

These things were all possible, but our bodies needed time to build up to those capabilities. Our instructors designed PT programs meant to work us up to those goals. As a way of keeping tabs on who was deficient in which areas, we periodically had performance checks…where we measured and recorded our performance in a task (whether it be a timed run, number of repetitions done, etc.).

When we first started timed runs or timed rucks, everybody went at their own speed because nobody knew how their natural speed would play out over the distance in question. As time went on though, and we learned a bit more, we started recognizing not only our own abilities, but those of our teammates. Some people learned “okay, I’m usually able to make the cutoff with a few minutes to spare, so maybe I don’t need to push it quite so hard.” Others learned “that guy usually sets a pretty good pace…if I can just keep up with him for most of the distance, I can fall off near the end and still make it.”

The result was that trainees would usually pair off or group up according to their ability. During a run they would set the pace for each other, or during a ruck they’d be able to talk and keep each other’s spirits up. Being together helped them draw strength from one another and made them stronger than they would be on their own.

It seemed, though, that in every class you had someone who struggled very hard with certain things. Some people were naturally good at running, others were good at push-ups. Some were gifted at rucking long distances quickly, others were just born leaders. We had a guy in our class, Bob, who wasn’t really good at any of those things.

During runs Bob would always be last. He’d be near the end during ruck marches. His pushups were okay, but his pull-ups were terrible. He was not a leader. He was a goofball that would drag down the team’s average performance, and he didn’t seem too bothered by it.

One day we did a timed run. We had a one-mile dirt track, which made it nice because then we only had to do a quarter of the laps that we’d normally do on a regulation track. I don’t remember how many laps we had to do that day, but it was at least two or three.

The results were predictable. The regulars were first across the finish line, and the next few guys finished in what was a pretty normal order. By the time everyone else had finished and were all doubled over with our hands on our knees in the grass near the finish line, Bob was still on the track, way behind everyone else.

Sometimes on runs, the people who finished early would jog back to meet up with guys still trying to cross the finish line, and go at their speed to encourage them along until the end. I don’t remember everyone’s first names anymore; I’ll just call this guy Jack. Jack looked down the track and asked “who’s going back for Bob?” This was much further back than any time we’d gone back for someone before.

Jack looked around at everyone, and nobody seemed willing to go that far back to meet up with Bob. Without another word, he took off running across the field to meet up with Bob. After he took off he didn’t look back.

You can imagine the mood among those still left at the finish line. A little bit of guilt, a little bit of “but…it’s Bob.” It didn’t take long though, before everyone else started running across the field, too.

Now imagine you’re Bob. You’re plodding along at your best pace, which never seems to be good enough. Everyone else has left you in the dust, and you’re on your own. Even though this is one of your personal best distances and times, you can’t even see anybody anymore. But then here comes Jack, running over the hill and meeting up with you to match your pace and maybe urge you on a bit. As soon as he comes alongside you, a group of more than a half dozen other guys appears over the same hill, coming back for you.

Sometimes you just need to be willing to be the first one to step out. Jack didn’t know what would happen, but he decided that he was going, with or without anyone else. His resolve set everyone else in motion.

If you’re a Christ-follower, there are going to be things in your life that you are not going to want to do. There will be other times where you know there’s something that you ought to do, but you really don’t want to. It could be something like starting a new ministry from scratch because you’re the only one in a position to do it. It might be visiting a shut-in to see how you can help them. Whatever it is, nobody’s doing it, and you have the ability to do it.

After you step out, you just might find that others follow your lead.

Posted on

The Importance of Stretching

Photo courtesy of picswe.com

After graduating Air Force Basic Training, I began my tryout to become a survival instructor. The Indoctrination course after Basic Training is just a screening course; if you pass it, then you get to move on to take another one. While at “Indoc,” it’s your job to demonstrate that you can handle mental and physical challenges and that you’re determined to make it.

Life at Indoc was physically demanding. Our instructors needed to build our skinny bodies into something that could physically withstand punishment and grueling conditions. Physical Training was a large part of every work day. Pushups became second nature to us all. Calisthenics, weights, running, ruck marches…all intended to build us into something stronger. At that time most members of the Air Force were required to take a PT test once a year. Physical fitness was so important to our training that we did a PT test once a week.

We had some strange workouts. Sometimes we’d be in the woods cutting down trees and setting up shelters. Once every few weeks we’d have a Combat Controller (one type of Air Force special forces) come by and lead us on a run that took us through the woods and the mud, over fences, through base housing, and anywhere else he felt like going.

In order to reduce the risk of injuries and to help prepare ourselves for physical activity, we spent between 20 and 30 minutes at the start of each day stretching. Stretching warms up your muscles and helps enable them to cope with strains, exertion, and overextensions.

There were times when we had a good idea of the upcoming workout. Sometimes we knew we had a run coming up, so we’d perform stretches with a focus on that activity. Other times we knew we’d be in for a long session of calisthenics, so we stretched nearly every muscle we had. When you know the nature of the goal, in this case a particular type of workout, it’s easier to take steps to prepare for meeting that challenge.

The tricky part is when you don’t know what the goal is. On occasion, our instructors didn’t tell us what we were in for. They made sure we performed certain types of stretches, but didn’t give us any clues other than that. We had to trust that the instructors’ preparatory guidance would help set us up for whatever we had to face next.

The workouts were often grueling, but the part that took awhile to see was that successfully making it through a difficult workout was part of the solution to overcoming subsequent challenges we didn’t even know about at the time. At first all we knew was that we were exhausted at the end of a workout session. The following day we’d show up again, then leave exhausted after another workout. Each day we’d show up and go through another session and leave exhausted, but over time we discovered we could withstand more stress, we became stronger and more capable; we were able to tolerate conditions we previously didn’t think we could withstand.

It’s exactly the same thing when living a life for Christ. When we think of “living a life for Christ,” we think of going out and doing amazing or improbable things, but the truth is that some days we’re just trying to survive. We know people who have either made it through intolerable conditions or are currently enduring miserable circumstances. For them, each day is a fight just to make it through. At the end of each day all they know is that they are completely exhausted and worn out, and they don’t know how they’ll ever make it through another day, let alone months (or possibly years) of the same conditions.

The things I learned at Indoc have parallels in life. God is the only one that knows ahead of time what the goal is and how He intends to use individuals to achieve it. If those people knew at the start what they’d have to face, many of them would never believe they could do it. At Indoc we stretched to prevent injuries; going on a run through the woods without stretching is dangerous. It’s easy to twist an ankle. If you stretch your ankle ahead of time, you might still twist it and it will still hurt, but you’ll be able to continue the run without actually sustaining an injury. God’s version of stretching a person sometimes means putting them in experiences that prepare them for follow-on experiences. They hurt, but it allows those people to make it through a subsequent challenge without breaking. Since God is the only one who knows what your upcoming “workout” entails, He’s the one that best knows how to “stretch” you ahead of time.

“But what about when the stretching never seems to end?” Sounds like you’ve moved past the stretching and into the actual workout. It’s important to remember that a muscle doesn’t become stronger by doing a workout a single time. It takes repetition. When you do the same workout repetitively, your muscles adapt. They grow; they meet the challenge. Over weeks, over months, or even years, they prove they can handle it, and so you have to “add more weight” to the workout in order to keep growing. The hard workouts are exhausting and draining, and they make you ask “why?” Looking back at what you were before it all started, aren’t you now stronger and more capable? Are you now in a better position to face the next challenge?

Have you ever been stretched spiritually, physically, mentally, and/or emotionally? Maybe it was to increase your “range of motion,” capacity, or willingness. The stretching and workouts cumulatively built you into someone that can handle something more…something more difficult.

The next challenge is on the way. Whatever it is, it’s going to look intimidating. Remember that God’s been working you up to it, though, and that it’s not too much for you. Your past experiences have prepared you to take it on and succeed; don’t be afraid to accept the challenge.