A Small Win!

Back several years ago, I used to race bikes. In bicycle racing they have a series called Criteriums. This is a short course race, usually a mile or so in length, generally around several city blocks or a town square. The race was comprised of so many laps plus time. Example, 30 laps plus ten minutes.

The age category I started racing in was Masters 45+. In that category were several former European racers who had come to the states and now just kicked around the circuits for "fun". Without saying, these guys were good. And without saying, after the first race or two, I realized I didn't stand a chance of winning, so I decided I would just make each race "hell" for them and I was good enough to do that.

During a race, I would sprint from the pack on a short climb or a corner section and make them chase me, then sit back down and ride with the pack. Then do it again, then again, then again.  Every time I did it, since the races were so short, they had no way of knowing whether I could sustain the break and stay out by myself and win, so they had to chase me. It was quite fun. 

In the process of doing that, while it was fun. Over the course of the season I realized my overall bike riding got better. My legs got stronger, my sprinting skills got better, my endurance was expanded, I just got better in every category and it showed itself in other races. What a benefit!

Sometimes, I think I'm not making any progress in my "walk with the Lord." The days go by where I'm surrounded by books, spend hours in the scripture, sometimes days pondering a single passage, chapter or book. To what end?

Then those "sins that so easily beset me" come knocking and I realize they don't have the same hold over me they once did. My mind does not react the same, my heart does not react the same, and I think -- YES! I am making progress!  YES, I am getting stronger!  I don't always win, but I know God's grace is doing a work in my life.

Father, I suppose for the sake of anyone that would read this I could have said I always gain the victory. But I don't. It hurts my heart that sometimes my resistance isn't any stronger than it is sometimes. But I am so thankful that I can look at my heart and mind and say - wow, Norm, you have made progress, you really are on the right track. No one that reads this will ever know how important that is. So I praise you and say THANK YOU LORD!