New Zealand vs. Zumba

Doubt is like a ferret. Once it gets its head through an unintended opening, the rest of its body slips right on through. Perhaps that's where the phrase "weasel its way in" came from. Doubt has weaseled its way into my head over the past month. At first, I felt weak. I allowed the doubt to tell me I was failing with my faith in God. Then I started to think that God was allowing it to happen for a reason. He allowed doubt to get its hold to establish the impossibility of this Olympic goal. He spent weeks affirming that I can't do it.

The former Olympic Gold Medal boarder-cross racers recently started their new training regimen on the snowy slopes of New Zealand. I, on the other hand, respond with weekly Zumba work-outs, sporadic stretching, and riding my longboard down the sad little hills of Missouri.

When I step back and view my efforts to train for racing versus their efforts to train, my hope dwindles like a candle wick in its last inch of wax. Who am I to attempt challenging these professionals? Who am I to think I'm shooting for the Olympics? Who am I to think I have any talent at all for racing?

I'm a child of God. And I'm intimidated. When I'm intimidated, I ask the wrong questions. The right questions are:

Who is God to challenge the professionals? Who is God to push His daughter toward the Olympics? Who is God to give me talent for racing?

He's the One who created me alongside the professionals. He's the One who says, "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways..." (Isaiah 55:8). He's the One who reminds me at dawn that I stepped forward to ask the impossible from Him.

So when I doubt, I doubt Him. When I'm intimidated, I'm allowing the enemy to win. When I fear, I have more faith in the antagonist than in my God. And I have to ask myself the following question:

Is this the mindset I want to have? If not, what am I doing to fight it?

If I'm willing to ask the impossible from God, I need to believe that impossible things can be done through me. With that being said, I'm going to stretch in preparation for my Zumba class tonight.