“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a
cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings
so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us…” Hebrews
12:1 New Revised Standard Version
“Just keep swimming.” Dorie, Finding Nemo
With all of the unsettling news that
is constantly before us, it has been refreshing and inspirational this past
week to read about Diana Nyad’s unprecedented swim from Cuba to Florida. Swimming that distance meant over 50 hours in
the water. What’s even more incredible
is that she made this swim at the age of 62.
I’m a bit younger, and I’m thrilled when I push myself on the elliptical. Over 50 hours of swimming. 62 years old.
Incredible!
But this was not Nyad’s first
attempt. At the age of 60 she went
through the intense training necessary for the swim from Cuba to Florida. After her
first attempt, she gave a TED talk in which she describes what happened on that
initial try. She was swimming strong. She was physically and mentally ready. But well into the journey, she was stung by a
box jellyfish. The box jellyfish is the
most venomous of all the ocean’s creatures.
The body’s first response is excruciating, burning pain. After that paralysis begins to set in. But she kept swimming. Her team’s EMT who was in one of the boats
surrounding her jumped in to help and he was also stung. He was a young man in excellent physical
condition, but the pain of that sting was so debilitating he was flat on his
back, trying to give himself epinephrine shots so he could then help her. A medical team from Florida arrived hours
later and made a floating ICU around her.
She kept swimming. She swam until
she was stung again. She accepted this
would be a staged swim and got out of the water. However the effect of the stings on her body
was too much and she abandoned her attempt.
Her words; she failed.
As inspiring as I found her
description of that first swim, what I found most powerful was the why. Why did she decide to do this in the first
place? She turned 60 and she wasn’t
happy about it. Those first 60 years had
gone by in a blink of an eye. In the
1970’s she had broken swimming records, but hadn’t swam competitively
since. Even with her successes, she
realized that she had spent a majority of time in negative thinking. She focused on her failures and her mistakes
only.
Around this time her 82 year old
mother died. In addition to dwelling in
the past, Nyad now dreaded the future.
If she died at the same age as her mother, that was only 22 years
away. What would she do with the rest of
her life in time that was fleeting? She
set a goal, she created a dream. That
dream was so big, so challenging it would push her to be fully present in her
life. There would be no time for negative
dwelling in the past or worrying about the unknown of the future. Chasing this dream would be the hardest thing
she could undertake. As Nyad observed,
the sport of swimming is like life. You
face endless obstacles. But (my
paraphrase) do you sink or do you just keep swimming?
The author of Hebrews had a
different kind of race in mind in this first verse of chapter 12. It was a race of faith with the goal, the
prize being eternal life. No matter what
obstacles or challenges the world throws at us, we have to persevere. We have to keep running this race, knowing
that we are running toward God with Christ as our example and “pioneer.” But I
think the underlying message of this verse and of Diana Nyad’s accomplishment is hope. Hope isn’t just something that comes to
us. We must persist in hope. We must persevere in hope. We have to cling to hope even though every
other voice out there may tell us we’re nuts to do so. Hope requires powerful persistence. Hope requires being willing to dream
something so big, so different from what reality seems to be that it seems
impossible. We read throughout scripture
that the abundant life God wants us to have is going to be radically different
than our expectations. The kingdom is
not what we think it will be. What may
seem impossible to us is always possible for God. So we persist in hope.
Concluding her talk, Nyad
paraphrased the poet Mary Oliver; what will we do with our one wild, precious
life? We have been given a wild,
precious life. How will we live it? Will we live a life of persistent hope and
seemingly impossible dreams? Will we live a life of courage, trusting that God
is with us in every step of this race no matter the obstacles? Will we live a life abundant in compassion,
mercy and love? What will we do with our
wild, precious life?
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