by Dona Hake
My favorite thing to watch during the Olympic games is the ice skating. No matter how mastered I can see the skaters are, I find myself a bit nervous for them. My heart just drops when I see one of them fall. I cannot imagine the years of preparation and practicing they go through to end up in the Olympic games. Their performance must be done perfectly and in exact precision and their expectation of high scores from the judges is their goal. I cannot even imagine what it would be like to know you are performing in front of the whole world. For one of these athletes to fall during their performance would be devastating and heartbreaking.
Many times I have observed when skaters made mistakes or fell and I could plainly see that in spite of the error the athlete was exploding with determination to get back up and continue. Then sadly there were those that were affected for the remainder of their performance. There was one USA skater that did an exceptional performance and I observed she had a beautiful yet humble confidence. I loved what she shared with a reporter as he inquired of how she dealt with the extreme pressure. She said, “You just have to let go of all the fear!” What a wonderful word of wisdom.
We too need to go forward in confidence as we serve the Lord that we can remain strong and enduring in our spiritual walk. We need to let go of whatever will serve to rob us of our confidence.
Hebrews 12:1-3 (AMP)
” let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight)
and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us,
and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence
the appointed course of the race that is set before us…”
~~~~~♥~~~~~