Go For It

When I first shared my Olympic plague with my husband, he was humored by my sporadicism, then cautious and surprised when I expressed more serious thoughts. He encouraged me to continue praying.

Prayer, I realized, is something I would need to take more seriously. It's often hard for me to remember the personal side of prayer. You know, the fact that I can say,

"God, I'm doubting you, I don't understand You, and it feels like You're on vacation."

Sometimes I think I need to pretend that I feel close to Him. 

He's not fooled. 

All this is to say that my prayer life is as stable as a teeter-totter. Recently, I've been inspired by Mark Batterson's book, The Circle Maker. He focuses on finding the promises in the Bible and praying circles around them. Promises like, 

"Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for peace and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:11-13

It's been fun talking to Him on a more regular basis--talking about my dryland training thoughts and my nerves about actually racing. I've found peace in sharing that sometimes I don't think this is going to work or I have more faith in my ability to catch an edge and crash than I do in His power to shake a mountain.

I spent the first several weeks researching how to start racing, who to sign up with, how much it will cost (yikes!), where we'll need to travel, and the process to making it to the Olympics (double yikes!). Occasionally I'll think, "I just want to try so I can know whether or know I could have been an Olympian." But it's just a mental excuse to comfort myself if I place last in my first race, which is also doubt in God's power.

I did not start dryland training or work-out right away (other than stretching) because I was still healing from a fairly recent concussion from a car accident (click the link for the story). Both my head and my right shoulder were trying to heal so I could get to the sweat and blood part of "training".

I shared my Olympic thoughts with one of my close friends a week after God planted the urge. I had barely asked, "What do you think?" before she replied, "Go for it".

Heartfelt. Passionate. No doubt in her voice. Go for it.

I needed to hear that sort of affirmation, but I also needed my husband's encouragement to pray. After a week of severe prayer, hours of reading, and a new-found passion for faith and God, I planted my feet firmly in the cement of decision.

I'm definitely going for it.