Waiting and the End Results

I've been learning a little life lesson recently. I'll start with the metaphor: ice skating of course :-). In my ice skating lessons, I've been learning 3-turns. I'll admit, they should be easy, but for me, I'm feeling rather uncoordinated and having a hard time with them. The thing about 3-turns is you can't force them. To do a 3-turn, you skate forward on one foot, turn your body to face backwards and your foot will turn on a dime so you are now going backwards. The thing that gets me is focusing on the end result. I focus so much on turning my foot...I want to do a 3-turn. But my teacher constantly reminds me, I need to just let it happen. I need to turn my body first (my head, my arms, my shoulder, etc) until last-but-not-least my little foot just has to turn.

We heard a sermon at church this past weekend along the same lines. It was Bill Hybels' sermon on "Holy Discontent". He talks about how something might bug you, a pssion God has given you, and it bugs you and irritates you until you can't stand it anymore. You get so annoyed that you simply must do something. Many times people focus on the doing something part and do not consider the passions God has given them. They think they will just start volunteering somewhere or helping people, which isn't bad, but God maybe giving them an even bigger dream if they stop being busy for a moment and look to Him.

Just like doing 3-turns, there are so many things in life that are exciting and we want to be at the end results, but many times, its not just about the end results, its about waiting patiently and growing in the meantime, its about things God wants to teach us so that we may better enjoy and understand the end results.

Pain

Tonight was my first night of ice skating lessons. I'm super excited about the lessons and am enjoying it thoroughly. I joined mostly to get exercise and become a better skater. My teacher helped me learn some new skills to work on and congratulated me for passing a few of them already! (I'm already to a Beta level). After my lessons were over and I was back at home on my couch I realized: My legs are in pain! My fingers are in pain (I scraped some skin off pulling my laces tight)! And it got me to thinking...I'm rather excited about this pain! Yes, it hurts (I hope I can walk tomorrow), but its good. I know I am working my muscles and my body is getting stronger. It hurts, but its worth it.

It a lot like life...there is a lot of pain in life. Most of it is good in the end because it shows that we are "working our muscles", that we are growing (maybe spiritually, emotionally, socially, etc). Where there is physical pain, physical growth or strength often follows. The bad (fat) goes away and reveals a stronger, healthier body. In life, when there is pain, bad stuff is often released to reveal a stronger, healthier life.

Now, sometimes physical pain is due to a poor move...slipping and falling may cause you to break your arm (which is painful) but that pain doesn't help you grow...it is due to you doing something wrong. Sometimes pain in our life is because we aren't following God. We have turned away and because of that are experiencing pain. When we turn back to God, our pain may go away or become the first type of pain I talked about.

We have been conditioned to think that pain is bad, but that is not always the case. Pain can be good. Thank you, God, for pain!

Adventures in Ice Skating

Its been a while since I posted, so I thought I'd post SOMETHING. I've started a new adventure...ice skating. I've loved ice skating since I was a little girl and took lessons when I was little. My friend's eight-year-old daughter started taking lessons a few months ago and has quickly excelled at the sport. Inspired, I went to a few open skating sessions with her and loved it. Now, I have my very own pair of ice skates (the hockey guys at Straus helped me find some good used ones and even sharpened them for me :-) ) and start lessons next Tuesday! I am trying to convince my friend Kari to sign up with me. We'll be spinning and skating and triple luting before you know it!!! Olympics here we come :-)

Oh! That reminds me: my friend and I decided we will be attending the 2012 Olympics in London!!!!! I'm so excited!!!!