Presevering on....

Persevering  on...

After finishing the book, the Three Year Swim Club, (which in itself is a challenge), I was reminded of this verse---

Philippians 3:13-14 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

This coach and his students had years of perseverance to their goal of reaching the Olympics, through rules, wars, dictators, finances, transportation, swimming conditions, family conditions ....but they fought,moving forward, keeping their eye on the goal of swimming sometime for the US team...and they made, finally...several years later, but they made it...from the sugar irrigation ditches of Maui to the regulation pools of the Olympics in the late 1940's...from a rag tag bunch of "playing in the water" to honed, muscled swimmers...what a goal...what an acccomplishment...they practiced hours, days, weeks, months, years to reach their goals...

As a follower of Christ, am I practicing, persevering those hours, days, weeks, months, years in my goal of reaching the the prize as well...? What am I doing daily to accomplish the transforming to Christlikeness...I know it is not a performance, but a relationship ...but am I striving for that deep relationship?   Do I lean into the leadership of the Holy Spirit letting Him, coach me in truth...do I listen to those instructions, following them for my betterment in the race of life..? Pressing on toward the Real prize ?  Not just the adulations of earth, but the "well done, good and faithful servant"?

Time for self examination again...Thank YOU that you are always there, through the race, "coaching", never taking your eye off our goal...help me to persevere...to win the race... With you, through you, in you...in me...

2 Corinthians 3:18 And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.