We Are Going to do Up-Downs Until …

“Coach Boone: What did you say?

Blue Stanton: Said, we need a water break.

Coach Boone: A water break? Water is for cowards. Water makes you weak. Water is for washing blood off that uniform and you don’t get no blood on my uniform, boy you must be outside your mind! We are going to do up-downs, until Blue is no longer tired, and thirsty.” (Remember the Titans)

(if you did not know that was from Remember the Titans, we can’t be friends)

I love this movie and this is one of my favorite lines.  I remember football practices similar to this during two-a-days in August. (Maybe not this bad)  I don’t advocate withhold water, but suffering to a certain extent does develop strength. Whining and complaining reinforces weakness.

My first 2 weeks of Marathon training this time have been a series of “Up-Downs” .  First day … great, a little sore but OK. 2nd run … woke up late and only go in 2 of 4 miles.  With the intention of making up miles the next day, I allowed circumstance to overtake my week and well  … that was week #1. (only 6 of 15 miles).  I did get in some workouts, just not running.  Week 2 – run #1 … woke up late, but ran home from work and it was good (4 miles instead of 3)!  Run # 2 – Again ran home (4 of 4  miles).  Run #3 (3 miles)  is still pending, but definitely in the cards at this point & run #4 (7 miles)  is scheduled for Saturday with some accountability on this one (It is Facebook Official). I think training is going to be a series of “Up-Downs” until  either I get more disciplined or race day.  I am OK with that because either way, I will be getting stronger.

“for the righteous falls seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumble in times of calamity.” (Proverbs 24:16 ESV)

Often, I think my life is just a series of Up-Downs.

• Sometimes I am knocked down by circumstanced beyond my control. “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation…” (John 16:33a ESV)
• Sometimes I just trip and fall over my own two feet   “…the sin which so easily ensnares us…” (Hebrews 12:1 NKJV)

The Bible is full of examples of people getting knocked down or tripping.  Sometimes circumstances dictate the fall like Joseph (Genesis Joseph) or Job (Job in umh … Job).  Other times (like most of the time) it is sin that trips them up like David, Peter,  etc.  In a few cases it was the whole nation that messed up and landed on their faces.  Remember the whole wandering in the desert for 40 years thing?  “Water makes you weak … water is for cowards”  (Maybe Denzel should portray voice of God in the next version of the “Ten Commandments”.)

How awesome is it that  it does not matter how we end up on the ground.  God has a plan to get us back on our feet … if we will let him.  Those verses that I referenced up there, yeah … they were incomplete.

“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33 ESV)

“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1-2)

God’s plan for me is not to grovel in the ground.  He has a plan and I am a part of it.  He wants me to perform at my very best.  That means he has to turn my weakness into strength and yield my strength to His strength.  When I end up on the ground, it is His plan for me to get back up. So … I may have to do Up-Downs until … I am no longer tired and no longer thirsty and I enter His rest have been completely filled with the Living Water.

My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, Nor detest His correction; For whom the Lord loves He corrects, Just as a father the son in whom he delights.(Proverbs 3:11 NKJV)