Swimming Faster

I've often thought about what it takes for women to juggle their lives successfully. Whether married or single, stay-at-home moms or career women, all of us have a teetering pile of activities that vye for our attention. My life is certainly no different and this very issue has kept me on my knees.

As we try to do life in a way that is honoring to God it can be easy to get swept up into the "bigger, faster, more" mentality that permeates our culture. In our rush to keep up with those around us and stay in step with the ever increasing speed of life, we are exhausted, stressed and wilting under the pressure.

That's why Jill Brisco's words to me many years ago changed my life. I wrote about our conversation in detail in "The Resolution For Women" because the impact it made on me was staggering. As a young woman in motherhood and ministry she encouraged me to reorganize my life according to God's priorities for me in that season and then make the hard choices necessary to devote the best of myself only to those at the top of the pile.

This would mean that so much would remain unattended though, wouldn't it?

I remember feeling that all too familiar sense of guilt creep up in the back of my neck, then quickly over my shoulder as it made a bee-line to sink it's claws into my heart. There would be a lot of "no's" I'd have to say in order to achieve what she was suggesting - a lot of opportunities I'd have to decline and relationships I'd have to all but ignore for a season.
Seemed rude and inconsiderate.
But reserving my energy in this way, she surmised, was critical to long-term success in my life and the health of every thing that matters most.

Missy Franklin knows this well. 

She backstroked her way to the gold in Monday night's Olympic meet. The 17 year-old was stunning above and below the waterline and did the US proud as she brought home the victory for us all.
And yet, only minutes before, she'd been in another meet - the 200 meter freestyle - and she was far from first.
She wasn't even in second.
I felt disappointed as I'd watched her hand touch the wall several seconds after other swimmers from different countries. Missy was the one I'd come to see and I'll admit, I was disappointed when she seemed to straggle behind the others.

Which is what made her backstroke win so exciting.
. . . and what made her strategy so powerful.
Her slower speed in the former race was deliberately calculated in preparation for the latter. She knew that if she expended all of her energy to come in first during the 100 meter backstroke, which was only a semi-final meet, she'd be a goner in the next one - the final - the one where a gold medal was at stake.
So, she held back. Reserved her energies. Intentionally declined to give everything.

She moved slower in one race so she could swim faster in the other.
And she brought home the gold because of it.

Missy's lesson is clear, isn't it?

What are you saying "no" to today so you can bring home the gold in all the ways that matter most?

Priscilla