Just Keep Swimming

One, two, three, breathe, one two three, breathe…I try and match my breathing with my strokes when I swim. In freestyle this is hard for me. I start out strong but then my breathing starts coming faster than I can move my strokes. I get a little over half a lap in before I have to swim with my head above the water. The thing about swimming without putting one’s head in the water is that it slows you down. In other words it’s bad technique. You move slower when your heads above water and you’re working twice as hard to move yourself down the lane. This is because your body is not rotating like it should through the water. Like I said, it’s bad technique.

My problem with the breathing though is that I don’t have enough stamina to keep my breathing right. I get that half of a lap done and I push off the wall for the second half and when I come up for air after about the second time I can’t do it anymore. I just can’t get my breathing to match up with my strokes so I go back to my old way. My technique gets sloppier quicker too when I have to swim like this. Because I’m wearing myself out twice as fast this way and I start to lose my focus on how I’m moving through the water. I start to forget to pick my elbows up out of the water and I start flailing my arms all over the place. This slows me down even more.  I keep pushing myself though.

When I first started swimming I could only do a half of a lap at a time and you could forget about me even thinking about putting my head under the water. I was winded within a few feet of the wall. But I have kept on pushing myself more and more each time I go and I can now, after 3 months of swimming, I can swim a little over half a lap with my head under the water. (If you can’t tell I’m proud of this accomplishment.)

Now breaststroke. This is something I can do pretty decently. I pull my arms in a semicircle and snap my legs together propelling myself forward and pushing my head and shoulders out of the water and repeat. I breathe in when I push myself up and blow bubbles out of my nose when I am under. Now with this stroke I have a rhythm. I can do 4 laps in a row without once having to swim with my head above the water. In this stroke I have my rhythm and breathing in line. In this stroke I got my groove. Don’t get me wrong I am no professional, my technique would probably make any competition swimmer sick to their stomach but for me this is pretty dang good.

I have said a lot here but I have a purpose. We have to find our rhythm in life. We need to be looking to God and line up our strokes with his breath. When we get our part lined up with God’s we can really get up some momentum. But when we have bad technique, when we get sloppy and start doing things our own way we get winded and things become twice as hard as they should be. When we get out of line with the things of God we just won’t go the distances we are capable of. I’m not saying that when we get lined up with God everything is just going to come to you easily. What I am saying here is that when your strokes, when your efforts, match God’s breathing, His plans, you will go further than you ever imagined.

Oh and don’t compare yourself to others. During my workout I have had quite a few people tell me different ways to improve my technique. And generally, I don’t mind it at all. I look at it as an opportunity to better myself that is when it is people that know what they are talking about.

When a lifeguard or a member of the gym staff offers their help I listen. But when someone in the locker room has something to say I disregard it. That’s because I recognize who is an authority on the subject. The people that make their living from swimming are the people I want to take advice from. And that is the way I try and look at life. When someone who has more wisdom than me talks I listen. When it is someone who has been there and done that and knows what they are talking about then I care about their opinion and thoughts. But I am NOT looking at the person swimming in the lane next to me for advice. That is not to say that they might not know something of significance but it is saying that they are in the same pool as I am. They don’t know anything more than what their experience has given them and I don’t know if their information is reliable or not. What I am saying here is have discernment when you ask for advice and/or guidance.

The last thing I want to say here is your going to be better at different things than others. Just like I am better at breaststroke than freestyle, you may be gifted as a worship leader and me as a teacher (or writer I like to think). That doesn’t mean that we can’t do what the other one is doing, but it does mean that we most certainly won’t go as far as we could if we were operating in our God given calling.

So push forward my friends. Keep pushing hard. I know it’s tough. I know you’re out of breath and your arms and legs are burning from effort but just keep going. You will find your rhythm. You will get lined up with God. You will gather stamina as you keep propelling yourself forward. In the words of my dear friend Dory, “Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming…”

Love, Randi