My Crazy Idea
It began as a tiny thought in the back of my mind, but the more I entertained it, the more inclined I actually became to saying it aloud.
"I think I want to do a sprint triathlon."
There. I had admitted it out loud in the presence of my own ears and the ears of a friend. It shocked me enough that I had actually given words to my crazy idea, but what shocked me even more was my friend's response.
"No way! I'll do it with you!"
I stared speechlessly at her with an amazed expression that quickly turned into pure delight. "You will?!" I couldn't believe that my idea hadn't been shot down as absolutely insane from the moment I uttered the words. "You bet," was her reply. "I even have books that we can use to train. We can read up on it, train hard, and do it!"
Now I couldn't get the idea out of my head, so I went right back to my room and started researching sprint triathlons in 2011. When my roommate entered the room, I spurted out, "How would you feel about a sprint triathlon?" I continued to explain that it meant 400 meters of swimming, 13 miles of biking, and 5 kilometers of running...all in one race.
"That sounds fun! Let's do it!" came her reply. My heart started beating faster as I realized that my crazy idea was becoming a possibility.
The whole next day, I raised awareness about my random idea to swim/bike/run a sprint triathlon. Time and time again, people responded by saying they would be interested, that they would think about it, or that they had always wanted to do a sprint triathlon. By the end of the day, I no longer said, "Would you be interested in a sprint triathlon?" but rather, "Hey, we are doing a sprint triathlon. You wanna join?"
Just a little bit of camaraderie changed a crazy idea into a challenging and exciting goal. What I had been afraid to say aloud, I now promoted shamelessly. And it was all because a group of friends was interested and excited about it. It was no longer a ridiculous and random thought, but an attainable goal. It was no longer a maybe, but a definitely!
This is a wonderful picture of the body of Christ. Can you imagine being a follower of Jesus all alone? I would never be motivated to train and run the race of faith if I were all alone. But within the body, we don't have to keep our crazy, radical, maybe even ridiculous ideas to ourselves. We are free to share them and rally others to join us in our movement. Crazy devotion to Christ, reckless abandonment, and radical faith are pretty much ridiuclous in the eyes of the world, but not to our brothers and sisters in Christ. I believe that is why we have each other - so that we can share in our crazy love for the Lord and not be embarrassed by it. We can move from just thinking about radical obedience to actually doing it because we have a family who will do it alongside us.
So what is your crazy idea regarding your love for the Lord? What kind of crazy obedience have you been thinking about? Go ahead and speak it aloud. Rally your brothers and sisters together. That's what we are here for - to train with you, run with you, and pursue Christ together.
"I think I want to do a sprint triathlon."
There. I had admitted it out loud in the presence of my own ears and the ears of a friend. It shocked me enough that I had actually given words to my crazy idea, but what shocked me even more was my friend's response.
"No way! I'll do it with you!"
I stared speechlessly at her with an amazed expression that quickly turned into pure delight. "You will?!" I couldn't believe that my idea hadn't been shot down as absolutely insane from the moment I uttered the words. "You bet," was her reply. "I even have books that we can use to train. We can read up on it, train hard, and do it!"
Now I couldn't get the idea out of my head, so I went right back to my room and started researching sprint triathlons in 2011. When my roommate entered the room, I spurted out, "How would you feel about a sprint triathlon?" I continued to explain that it meant 400 meters of swimming, 13 miles of biking, and 5 kilometers of running...all in one race.
"That sounds fun! Let's do it!" came her reply. My heart started beating faster as I realized that my crazy idea was becoming a possibility.
The whole next day, I raised awareness about my random idea to swim/bike/run a sprint triathlon. Time and time again, people responded by saying they would be interested, that they would think about it, or that they had always wanted to do a sprint triathlon. By the end of the day, I no longer said, "Would you be interested in a sprint triathlon?" but rather, "Hey, we are doing a sprint triathlon. You wanna join?"
Just a little bit of camaraderie changed a crazy idea into a challenging and exciting goal. What I had been afraid to say aloud, I now promoted shamelessly. And it was all because a group of friends was interested and excited about it. It was no longer a ridiculous and random thought, but an attainable goal. It was no longer a maybe, but a definitely!
This is a wonderful picture of the body of Christ. Can you imagine being a follower of Jesus all alone? I would never be motivated to train and run the race of faith if I were all alone. But within the body, we don't have to keep our crazy, radical, maybe even ridiculous ideas to ourselves. We are free to share them and rally others to join us in our movement. Crazy devotion to Christ, reckless abandonment, and radical faith are pretty much ridiuclous in the eyes of the world, but not to our brothers and sisters in Christ. I believe that is why we have each other - so that we can share in our crazy love for the Lord and not be embarrassed by it. We can move from just thinking about radical obedience to actually doing it because we have a family who will do it alongside us.
So what is your crazy idea regarding your love for the Lord? What kind of crazy obedience have you been thinking about? Go ahead and speak it aloud. Rally your brothers and sisters together. That's what we are here for - to train with you, run with you, and pursue Christ together.
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