Phelps: Six month break set me back a year and a half

I ran across this video during the Olympics and wanted to post it on my blog. His line about the intense training he did every day for five years made an impact on me. It was, "If you want to be the best, you have to do things other people aren't willing to do." He figured if he trained every day, that would give him 52 extra training sessions per year that nobody else was getting. After the 2008 Olympics, he took off for six months. Now in my mind I would think that someone in that great of shape could afford to take some time off. But Phelps said it took him a year and a half to get back into form. That's unbelievable! I had no idea it would take someone so long.

You might be wondering what that has to do with the rest of us who are not superstar athletes. I guess it made a difference with me because of being a Christian. And I'm not talking about my religion; I'm talking about who I want to be in my daily life. I want to be someone who looks different. I want to be someone who draws attention to God--not someone who draws attention to herself. I want to be different from the status quo Christian. I want others to see Jesus.

If we always compare ourselves to what other Christians are doing as a way to excuse what we do or don't do, we'll always look just like everyone else. And I'm not sure we'll turn the world upside down. Athletes have to have a lot of discipline and a lot of focus on the goal. As Christians we don't get to take time off from our christianity. Every moment of every day is important.

Something we don't like to think about, athletes often go through a lot of pain.  The Christian life is no different. There are things that cause us pain. There are times that the people we've poured our lives into hurt and disappoint us. There are times that people reject us. And there are times that we just get discouraged and tired. But what do we do to our Father? How many times does He look at us and just think, "I had something so much better for you." We're so good at trading the good for the best. We have to do everything to live in the moment never thinking about the long term effects or what we might be missing out on. I don't think our focus should be on what feels good today.

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress. And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish." Things on this earth are so temporal. Let's keep going and not become weary and give up.