At seven years old, his parents decided to sign him and his sister up for swim lessons. As with most families, schedules were tight, so to make sure they could both be on the same schedule each week and without communicating the reason to the children, they decided to put him in his younger sister's class as it would be too challenging to move her up to his age group. As his adolescent mind processed this move, he immediately thought and accepted as truth, that he must not be a good swimmer if his parents "demoted" him to a lower-level class.
Many years later he decided to compete in a triathlon. He was in great shape, had the mind of a SEAL, was not one to do anything little, and was hyper-focused on his goal. One element, however, caused him great anxiety...the swimming part...he was not a good swimmer.
During a training session, he teamed up with a friend he knew was an excellent swimmer, as he was at the top of the state rankings during his competitive swimming years. During the swim, he surprisingly found that he was keeping pace with his friend. Wait a minute...perhaps he wasn't a bad swimmer after all. That was just a story he told himself based on one experience he had in his youth, and he has been repeating that story over and over again his whole life and it was false.
"The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? But I, the Lord, search all hearts and examine secret motives." (Jeremiah 17:9-10)
When my friend and Churchill leader, Mike Hardy, told me that story, I couldn't help but think of all the stories we tell ourselves that simply aren't true. Stories that emerged somewhere deep in our psyche from an experience, something someone said, or a quiet, subtle ambush from the devil himself. I'm not a good swimmer, how could I be loved, why would they work with me, it will never get better, I'll never get out of debt, I'm not enough, they're just gonna say no, I could never accomplish that, I'll always be...I'll never be. All deceptions of the heart…all fiction.
Time to re-write some stories! God has given YOU that power...in the present. God has not given you a spirit of fear but of power, love, and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7). Power to re-write stories.
The pen is in your hands and He wants to co-author something transformational in you. In fact, he already knows where the story is going, He's just waiting for you to catch up!
"I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again. For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope." (Jeremiah 29:10-11)
Be who God says you are, not a character from some fictional story in your head. You ARE a good swimmer. Get out of the boat and start swimming.
