Walking on Water

"We rejoice in suffering in the same way that Olympic athletes rejoice in their workouts - not because we find them easy, but because we know they will one day produce great reward."  {pg. 426 If God Is Good...Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil}

I love/hate to exercise.  Any doctor will tell you my body was not designed exactly for it by today's standards.  I do not put on muscle easily as most true athletes do.   I have asthma which causes me to wake up tired a lot of the time.  I have mitral valve prolapse which can also cause me to feel tired often.  I also have endometriosis.  (I thought that would go away with the surgery, but doc tells me it doesn't.  The endometrial cysts remain and can even grow.)   However, when I do exercise, all these things become moot.  My heart is strengthened.  My lungs are strengthened.  My back muscles are strengthened along with my stomach which reduces pain from the endo.  Knowing this doesn't make getting myself to exercise any easier.  I have to literally force myself to do so.  It helps that my husband asks me now and then if I have walked or done my trampoline yet.  However, if I focus on the results while exercising, somehow it gets easier. 

I have been lax this past winter and did not exercise nearly as often as I should.  I am more tired than ever in winter due to the fact that I am one of those people that needs sunlight to fully function, and this became a convenient excuse.  I am paying for it now.  I walked two miles outside for the first time in three months the other day.  My legs became quite sore from it.  That did not stop me today though.  I realized the error of my ways and made myself jog for 30 minutes on the trampoline.  Remembering that I won't have so much pain if I keep keeping on kept me going, though I didn't feel like it.

It is the same with suffering in this world.  If I focus on my suffering, it seems worse.  If I take the time to look around me, I can always find someone in worse shape, and that makes me realize how self-centered I am being.  If I then take the hint and start remembering that my time of suffering here is short compared to eternity and that in eternity I will be free of all suffering, then nothing seems quite so bad.  Thinking about how I can use this time of suffering to help and encourage others also makes it much easier to bear. 

Just like Peter walking on the water: When I take my eyes off Christ Jesus, I start to sink and drown in self pity, but as long as my focus remains upon Him and the glory to come, I am able to walk on the water even in the midst of the storm!!  (Matthew 13:22-33)