Groove

So today after I went to the gym, and had a very disheartening workout, I decided to take out the bike and go for a ride down the lake shore. It was a great ride, not too long about 10 miles or so a little under an hour total on the bike, and as I was on the way back weaving in and out of traffic on Oak Street I thought about how it felt to hit the work out groove. We've all done it, I mean if you 've ever worked out consistently you have been in that zone before. It's the best feeling durin the workout, the part where you feel like you can keep going for hours.

I hit that going north on the lake shore path. It was incredible I was flying down the path and when I got to the point where I figured I'd best turn around ( ya know that point where you have no idea where you are, and that figure in the distance that looks soo small used to look enormous, yea there.) So that part got me thinkin, I was cruisin along so well that I forgot where I was, I had progress so well that i didn't care where I was. I enjoyed the ride more than anything. I started to think about our faith, that we sometimes get into this groove, this zone where we just grow closer to the Lord and we walk side by side with him and it's all good. We just keep cruising, and I said a quick prayer asking God to quench my thirst for that Closeness with him, to keep me that close to Him that I no longer care where I'm going cause I'm with him. I thought about the passage where Paul talks about finishing the race strong, and I was like oh this is easy! and i turned around and started the ride back to Oak street to go back to campus.

Now the wind at the lake shore is bi polar. By that I mean one way it loves you, pushes you and wants to help you, but when you go the other way, it wants to see you fall and see you wear down. Now at the start of my work out, at about 430 I swam 500yds, now I know to some that may not be alot, but a third of a mile (give or take) is a long distance for a guy who just started swimming longer than a 12 by 12 pool k, thanks. My knees were burning, but going north I didn't even care, I just wanted to keep going. On th way back, i wanted to stop. It hurt so much more, I had to dig twice as much to go the same speed, I went from flying down the path, to the same pace an old lady rides her bike on a calm spring day. I was pissed. I had to try extra hard to get the same results. It brought be back to that passage about finishing well the race before us. Sometimes we get it easy and we get spoiled. I mean sometimes we get into a situation like a trial or a rough patch, and we just cruise on through like it's nothing. And other times, we get stuck, we don't wanna go on, and we feel like quitting. Finish well the race.

Finishing well is something the director at the camp I go to used to say all the time. That his goal was to enable us to Finish well. Our faith is definitely not the easy road in this life. cause like think about, we're called to die to ourselves, to our desires, and live out God's desires in us. Now I'm a firm believer, out of experience, that God's desires turn into our desires as we seek his face. But our worldly desires never go away, Yes i want to teach youth the Gospel and how to live out a faith that reflects the love of our great and amazing savior (amen!) but I also want a Corvette ZR1. (or a 1969 Stingray take your pick) But i know that God's desire in my life is going to be far more fulfilling than that car would be. His desires became my desires. That's not easy. it's hard. I wanted to be a marine for so long! and then a trainer cause I knew the money I could make. And now I'm going to make a fraction of that, and I love it. I welcome it. It wasn't easy getting to this point, ask either of my youth pastors, but I'm so glad I'm here now. I'm on the road to finishing well.

The wind had picked up and I was struggling but out of no where came a second wind and I picked up my pace. It was a reminder to me that when things get really difficult in our walk with the LORD he's going to pick us up if we can't do it on our own. he wants to. He longs for us to allow him to step in and take control. He'll set us back down in our groove when he's done too, there's no stopping or slowing down, He drops us in the best place possible and we keep on trucking.

When I saw the end coming up on the path, the signs of Oak and the familiar buildings I picked up the pace. I dug in and peddled hard and tried as hard as I could to fly again. I did all I could to finish well. I got back into my groove, into my zone. I was determined to Finish well. I did (at least in my eyes). So dig hard, make it happen. Dig down deep and put everything you have into finishing well. Don't stop for anything!


Find you're groove.