You Better Work

Remember back in middle school when just about every guy wanted to be a pro athlete? I'm sure there were a lot of girls who did, too, but the memory sticks out more vividly for the boys for me (middle school is also a much more distant memory for some of us).

How many pro athletes do you know now? Maybe one person you sorta kinda remember from school because you had that class together once? Why is that? If just about every boy wanted to be one, why aren't there more.

I'm sure there are countless reasons, but I'm confident many realized this: it's gonna take too much work.

The amount of drive and determination it takes to get to the professional level of any sport is commendable, but rare.

This week, a couple friends and I are headed to Minnesota for the Ezer Collective, a leadership intensive for Christian women led by speaker and author Jo Saxton. She and her business partner, Pastor Steph O'Brien, also have a podcast called Lead Stories. Today, they posted an interview with literary agent and writing coach Rachelle Gardner regarding the intricacies of becoming an author.

This is my calling! I was STOKED!

However, about 3 minutes into the podcast, I felt a familiar anxiety start to rise in my gut, and it usually precedes a powerful bout of insecurity, doubt, and fear. I'm starting to learn my lesson though, because before those nasty voices could even open their mouths, I called out to God to let me hear only what He would have me hear and to help me process it in a way that only furthers His purposes. 

And OH, did He ever deliver.

As I listened to the almost hour-long podcast, one overall theme really struck me: this "calling" of mine is gonna take a whole lot of flipping work. It will require every bit of the focus, drive, and determination of an aspiring pro athlete.

It's not like this is news to me exactly. I'm completely aware that I'll have to do a significant amount of work, but somehow, it always seems like the bulk of the work consists of some vague tasks in the distant future. That, my friends, is how aspiring authors and athletes remain "aspiring" instead of "professional." No one is paying you for work you might do in the future. 

The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing,

while the soul of the diligent is richly supplies.

Proverbs 13:4

Have you ever asked your kids to do something, and, instead of obeying, they continue whatever mindless thing they're doing? When that happens, I might wait a little bit, but at some point, I look at them and say, "Dude. Get it together. I asked you to do something."

Today, when I listened to that podcast, God gently whispered into my heart, "Alissa, it's time to act. It's time to work. Rise up, child. I asked you to do something." (Please note that God is ever so much gentler and kinder to me than I am to my kids...because He's God. We're working on it).

So, as the time for this training draws near, I go into it knowing full well I have a lot of hard work ahead of me, not sometime in the distant future, but in the here and now. It should sound scary, but one thought gives me a lot of comfort: the Law of Marginal Gains.

My friend John-Erik Moseler often talks about this in his coaching. Basically, it's a concept that touts the profitability of very small changes CONSISTENTLY over time and was used by Sir David Brailsford in his training of the British Olympic Cycling team. With it, he was able to transform a program that had only won one gold medal in over 75 years to one that won seven out of ten medals in Beijing in 2008...and he did it in only six years, and all with 1% changes over time.

My point is that no one becomes Michael Jordan overnight. Michael Jordan certainly didn't. He practiced and practiced and practiced for YEARS to become the legend He is today, improving ever so gradually with each failed shot, each brick to the basket, each layup that landed just a bit too shy.

I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that if God has a future mapped out for me, then He will give me everything I need to achieve it...including the will to WORK. 

Commit your work to the Lord,

and your plans will be established.

Proverbs 16:3

And let us not grow weary of doing good

for in due season we will reap,

if we do not give up.

Galatians 6:9

*Source: https://hbr.org/2015/10/how-1-performance-improvements-led-to-olympic-gold

Breaking Free

*sigh* I really don't know what to say here, except some seasons just beat you up.

There's a scene toward the beginning of Moana where she tries to take a boat out into the water for the first time. She's doing okay until a wave capsizes her and shoves her under. With her ankle stuck fast in coral, wave after wave plows into her until, finally, she grabs a rock, smashes the coral, and breaks free.

That's this season for me. In one particular area of my life, it feels like I keep climbing back into the boat, and time and again, waves hurl me into the sea. I've been caught by the coral so often that my entire being is bloodied and bruised, and my water-logged lungs ache for air.

And yet, I climb back on the boat. That's all that can be done, really. Sometimes, there's just no going back to the shore.

I thought about this as I jogged yesterday. I prayed and thought...and prayed some more.

Yesterday was a interesting day for me. The first couple weeks of the Couch to 5K program you only run for 60-90 seconds at a time. But yesterday was supposed to be the first day of week 3, which contains a couple 3 minutes runs.

I almost skipped it and when back to the week before. No shame in that right? A jog is a jog.

But something about it felt like cheating, and let's be honest, you never know what you can do until you try. Thus, week three, day one commenced.

The first 3 minute block was LONG. I didn't know 3 minutes could last that long. I got through, though, by praying and refusing to look at how long I'd gone.

But then the second 3 minute block came. This time, it was it was hard. MUCH HARDER. The only thing that got me through that time was the scene in the movie "Facing the Giants," when the coach has the kid crawl from one end of the field to the other blindfolded with another kid on his back. He just keeps saying, "You promised to give it your best! I know it hurts! But you've got more in you!" (Or something like that)

I felt like God was saying that: "With my help, you can do this. I know it hurts, but you have My strength in you. Give it all you've got. I'm here." 

And I got through. I mean...it hurt some, and I'm not entirely sure I was breathing by the end, but it got done. Then, I was home free! All the jogs were done, and I was down to a 3 minute walk, followed by a 5 minute cool down. 

However, once I recovered my breath, I felt God telling me He wanted me to jog again. He and I then had a little chat.

"I don't want to run anymore, though, God. I've done what I said I would do!"

But he whispered, "But with Me, you can do so much more than you can even ask or imagine. Run again."

"Fine," I grumbled. "I'll run from this car to that one down there, but that's it."

The second I started to run, the app told me I had a minute left of my workout before the cool down started...and as soon as I passed the second car, the app told my my workout was complete.

I cried tears of joy then...and even now. I hear you, God: with You, all things are possible. Sometimes you calm the storm, and sometimes, you just give us the strength to get through it. I know even when I feel like I can't go on, in you, there's hope.

But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.

They will soar high on wings like eagles.

They will run and not grow weary.

They will walk and not faint.

Isaiah 40:31

I wish I could say my hard season was over. In fact, even now I feel the waves crashing over me as I grope the seabed for something to break myself free. 

However, God has reminded me that no matter how long this lasts - a month, two months, or ten years - He is always with me, and one day, I'll break free from the waves that threaten to tear me to pieces. But to do that, I just have to keep getting back in the boat.