I totally sucked at Phys Ed in school. Back in the day, girls were forced to wear rompers. These contraptions were probably designed by uptight nuns who wanted to punish tweenage girls for even entering puberty in the first place and to ensure that no boy would ever find them remotely cute. This was especially true for those of us with flat chests and nobbly knees. Those rompers were completely hideous and did nothing for me at all. As if that wasn't enough to make PE a nightmare, it was even more unbearable for me because I was, and still am, a total klutz. Not only did my classmates laugh at my inept skills in the gym, but the teachers did too.
My friend R surprised me the other day when she told me that she quite liked PE and wasn't too bad at it. I felt a twinge of envy as I conjured up images of her in rompers doing cartwheels and forward rolls with wild abandon. Then she shared a deep and intimate secret with me. So deep and intimate that I've decided to share it with anyone reading this. One day she arrived to PE class to find that new climbing equipment had been installed. Kids were invited to give it a try. R was in shock. Although she really wanted to try it out, she has always been one for routine and was petrified to try something new just in case she couldn't do it. It turns out that all the other kids were keen to have a go with the new equipment...and all the other kids were keen to make fun of the one who was too afraid to go near it. Thankfully R had a very kind teacher who took the time to get alongside her at the end of class and allow her to try it on her own, with no other kids watching. And it turns out she loved it and went on to participate fully in every subsequent class.
Here's another example of someone being encouraged to achieve a personal goal:
We all need someone to encourage us from time to time. Sometimes we even need someone to hold us up when we're too weak to stand on our own. I heard someone defend his unbelief once by saying that Christians are weak because they can't manage *life* on their own; they use Jesus as a crutch. Personally, I don't think that's such a bad thing and I'm not ashamed to say that I can't manage life on my own and Jesus is my greatest Support Person.
The caption under the video clip states: "When you don't give up..You cannot fail". So, in this Race of Life, I am determined to fix my eyes on Jesus. I will not give up following Him and through Him, I cannot fail.
