Some of you may remember that I did a sponsored swim (for Marie Curie Cancer Care) back in April, when I swam 5 km (200 lengths of a 25 metre pool). That was a first for me and initially I doubted that I could last that distance. Egged on by some good friends who goaded me into increasing my original aim from 2.5 km to 5 km, I learned the value of aiming high.
Inspired by that, I decided to do another Sponsored Swim, reasoning that since I was swimming anyway, I might as well have an aim to keep me focussed and raise money for a worthy cause at the same time. So I looked around and discovered a charity called Aspire http://www.aspire.org.uk/home.aspx, which helps people with spinal cord injuries and which runs a ‘Channel Swim’ event (http://www.aspire.org.uk/aspire-channel-swim.aspx) whereby you swim the distance of the English Channel (22 miles) in the safety (!) of your own pool. There is no set time period for you to complete the swim, but again, looking at aims and being inspired by the charity’s name (aspire means ‘to have a great ambition or ultimate goal; desire strongly; to strive towards an end’), I decided to complete this challenge within 12 days (11 swimming day, 1 day of rest). So far, I’m on 564 lengths in 4 days.
Yesterday (27 July) was the yearly countdown to the London Olympics. There was plenty of publicity about this, with some of the venues being ‘showcased’. Whatever your views about the Olympics, there’s no doubt that a lot of people have aimed high in getting to this stage and for a lot of competitors, many goals and aims revolve around the competition next year. It takes commitment and effort to win!
It’s good to have goals. It’s good to aim for things – the old adage ‘if you aim for nothing, you’ll definitely hit it’ is, sadly, true. Our beliefs and world view will undoubtedly shape our goals and aspirations. Matt Redman captures this idea in his song ‘We Could Change The World’:
“Could we live like Your grace is stronger than all our faults and failures?
Could we live like Your love is deeper than our hearts could fathom?
Could we live like this?
Could we live like Your name is higher than every other power?
Could we live like Your ways are wiser than our understanding?
Could we live like this?”
When we live with a right view of God and then of ourselves, the possibilities are endless:
“Yes, our God is
All He says
All He says He is
Jesus, in Your name we could change the world
We stand in Your love
In Your power
All You say we are
Jesus, in Your name we could change the world.”
Let’s all continue to aspire to great things, for in His name, we could change the world.