Running on Rollerblades

Just for the record you shouldn't try to run on rollerblades but the title caught your attention didn't it?☺Anyways I have run on rollerblades, normally when I skate off the trail onto gravel and I have to run to try to keep from stumbling my way into a face full of dirt. God is gracious though and even when I stumble- in life and on rollerblades- He's always there to pick me up. And He's always waiting to pick you up to. If you don't believe me or you want to talk more about this send me a note or leave a comment and I'll get back to you.

Now on to what I was planning to write about. This post should've been titled "Running and Rollerblades" but I couldn't resist gong the other direction with it.
So what's it mean?

Years ago well I was still in junior high (and no dinosaurs did not roam the Earth, I'm not that old!) I was sitting in a Sunday School class listening to the youth leader teach. He was a runner and he talked about when he ran he would keep his gaze fixed on his goal. For instance if he ran down the beach towards a certain big rock he would stay focused on that rock for the whole run. He noticed that if he looked down in front of him he never knew how far he'd gone and he would get discouraged, staying focused on his goal kept him motivated.
He likened that to our walk with Christ. If we focus on ourselves and our problems we'll quickly be overwhelmed, discouraged and we'll just want to quit but if our gaze stays focused on Christ we'll keep running towards him. There's a verse that correlates to this and talks about keeping your gaze fixed on Christ but I don't remember the reference.

There's another strategy though and that's where the rollerblades come in. Across the street from my house there's a great paved bike trail and during the spring and summer when the weather's nice I love to take my rollerblades out there for a skate. The other day as I was skating I was thinking how if I looked up and kept my gaze focused on my end goal I would fall.
See where I skate there's a lot of debris on the trail. Branches, rocks, leaves, moss, bumps in the pavement and so on. If I'm not paying attention to where I'm going I can't focus on avoiding and navigating those obstacles. It's a balancing act, (literally as well as figuratively since you're balancing your whole body on ten wheels) I have to be focused on what's in front of me but far enough out that I see the obstacle before I get to it so I know how to react.
This is another correlation with our walk to Christ, one I've written about before. Sometimes we can't see through the mess our lives are in. So what do we do? We keep skating. We keep dealing with each obstacle or problem as it arises, glancing up to remind ourselves that we're skating towards the Savior but staying focused on just taking things one day, one hour, one minute at a time.

Both of these approaches are perfectly legitimate ways to go. At different times in your life you'll probably use both of these strategies as well as others. But use in them balance of each other and whatever strategy you're using remember to 1) stay focused on the Savior and 2) keep moving forward.