Growing Through The Motions: "Faint Not"

Hey, Y'all,

Pardon the interruption :-) minor home network issues slowin' me down some, but fret not, we're back. Today's thought is by Joel Kibble (yes, one of the guys in Take 6)--it's a little longer than usual, but it's a great story with a great point, and besides, I know y'all are big boys and girls :-). So, here we go...

"And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." Galatians 6:9

Most of the people who have known me for a long time know that I have always been a swimmer. Between the ages of 7 and 14, I swam for various swim teams in Alabama, finally joining a Junior Olympic team in Huntsville.

The swimming schedule was hectic. Every afternoon during the school year, I would leave school at 3 p.m. and head directly to swimming practice for two to two-and-a-half hours. The remainder of the evening would be devoted to doing homework until bedtime. Twice a week, I would be required to attend early morning training before school for an hour and a half, rising at 4:30 a.m. to be on time. When school let out for the summer and most kids departed for vacation fun, training for me was increased to every morning and every afternoon. Needless to say, it seemed as though there wasn't enough time in the day to do what I wanted to do before I had to return to the swimming pool.

In practice, most of the workout was devoted to technique and muscle training, spending large amounts of time exploding from the starting blocks and speeding up our flip turns at the other end. I can't forget to mention the drudgery of long distance swimming, and the lung-burning sprints. We were required to swim with floats positioned between our legs, while our feet were bound together to strengthen our arms. Then we kicked for miles holding on to a kickboard to strengthen our legs. Day in and day out, summer after school year, school year after summer, this was my schedule.

It is an understatement to say that I was bored to tears at times. The possibility of hanging out with friends and getting to know girls often gave way to that perpetual black line at the bottom of the pool. I hated the fact that I didn't have much of a social life, and while my body was in training, my mind was often somewhere else. Many times, I felt that my heart wasn't into it. I was just going through the motions, and because of that, I felt like I was simply "faking it." I often questioned myself. "If my heart isn't into the grueling swimming practices," I thought, "shouldn't I just quit and find something else that excites me? Why should I continue to go through the motions?" "I'm not accomplishing anything!"

Well, going through the motions does accomplish something. The truth of the matter is that all the instances of "going through the motions," whether my heart was in it or not, taught my muscles proper muscle response that only consistency could. Long afternoons of endless distance stroking I could have done asleep…that's how much I repeated the same motions; but those same motions were being committed to muscle memory every morning before school and every afternoon following school. When the big swimming competitions came, I simply needed to allow my body to do what it had been trained to do for years. I could then focus on doing my best rather than focusing on executing technique. Proper technique had been firmly entrenched into my soul during the drudgery of the many hours of practice I had logged over the years. Interestingly enough, I owe the blue ribbons, trophies and victories to the process of, you guessed it, "going through the motions."

It's funny then, that I've since decided that, in life, going through the motions has been less than noble. The process of going through the right motions is not fruitless, no matter how monotonous.

There have been a thousand times since that I've found myself going through the motions with marriage, child rearing, Take 6, ministry, family duties, finances, health issues, interpersonal relationships, etc. I can truly say that my heart has been in and out of each of these commitments; but the reason God admonishes us not to "be weary in well-doing" is because quite often, we may not be "feeling it." At times, "doing well" may feel like nothing more than going through the motions, but the right motions do accomplish something.

If you feel that you are going through the motions in some aspect of your life, take courage. "Feeling it" is not a requirement in doing God's will; but obedience is. Your heart will return if you are faithful to God and "faint not." No matter what you are feeling or not feeling, with God, you'll find that while going though the motions, you've been growing through the motions…right into what He wants you to be.

Amen to that, huh? Now mind you, I don't believe God created us for perpetual drudgery, but it's good to know that in God's economy, nothing is ever wasted--not even those stretches where all you can do is breathe in, breathe out, and put one foot in front of the other. God is good, and that's the truth.

You've been prayed for today...