Clearing the Bar
Yesterday my sister had the last track meet of her high school career. All year long she struggled in the high jump event, and went into yesterday’s invitational feeling quite discouraged about it. This quickly evaporated when, in a picture perfect moment, she nailed the 4’11” and secured herself the 1st place medal.
It was a great moment. The weather was high 70’s and beautiful. It was an invitational sponsored by the Cadillac newspaper and each school in the area was represented, so as you can imagine the stadium was packed. My sister Lacey and I camped ourselves out in the grass near the mat and waited breathlessly as Olivia completed several unsuccessful jumps. Each time she knocked the bar over she would sigh, shake her head, and look dejectedly in our direction for support. This was our cue to encourage her. In retrospect, the nice part about it was that she didn’t have to ask – and we didn’t have to try – we just cheered her on... because we loved her.
I will never forget the moment she realized that she won. She cleared the bar, landed in the bag, and looked immediately over her shoulder to make sure the bar was still intact. It wiggled a bit and then stood triumphantly still. She immediately shouted ‘Yessss!’ and flashed a huge, toothy grin. Then she ran toward Lacey and I who were already cheering and hopping up and down. It was a messy moment of hugs, celebration, picture-taking, and kisses. As we walked back to collect our belongings arm-in-arm, one of Olivia’s classmates made a comment that both touched me, and caught me completely off guard.
‘I wish my sisters gave me that much support…’
Granted, I felt bad for her because her comment was admittedly honest, but it made me feel incredibly happy that we had been there to witness that amazing moment in Livy’s life.
After she received her medal, I couldn’t help but think about the spiritual implications of the incident. It reminded me of a scripture that my dad used to always illustrate for me. Hebrews 12:1 says, ‘Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.’
My dad used to paint this picture of Heaven and my family members who have preceded us in death. He would tell me how Heaven’s stands were full of cheering people and angels… the huge ‘great cloud of witnesses’ if you will. Scripture tells us that the Spirit of God makes intercession for us. I guess you could say that whenever you are struggling through a tough situation – you’re facing an insurmountable obstacle, trying to clear the bar – there are droves cheering you on. I am sure you could debate the hermeneutics of that scriptural interpretation, but in my 5 year old mind, it was all the encouragement I needed. I wanted to ‘lay off the sin that so easily beset me and run with diligence’ the life that pleased God. I still think of this today.
As I walked past the cheering stands I thought – this is how heaven must be when we make a decision for Christ. We are definitely not alone in this race… We are encompassed with a GREAT cloud of witnesses.
It was a great moment. The weather was high 70’s and beautiful. It was an invitational sponsored by the Cadillac newspaper and each school in the area was represented, so as you can imagine the stadium was packed. My sister Lacey and I camped ourselves out in the grass near the mat and waited breathlessly as Olivia completed several unsuccessful jumps. Each time she knocked the bar over she would sigh, shake her head, and look dejectedly in our direction for support. This was our cue to encourage her. In retrospect, the nice part about it was that she didn’t have to ask – and we didn’t have to try – we just cheered her on... because we loved her.
I will never forget the moment she realized that she won. She cleared the bar, landed in the bag, and looked immediately over her shoulder to make sure the bar was still intact. It wiggled a bit and then stood triumphantly still. She immediately shouted ‘Yessss!’ and flashed a huge, toothy grin. Then she ran toward Lacey and I who were already cheering and hopping up and down. It was a messy moment of hugs, celebration, picture-taking, and kisses. As we walked back to collect our belongings arm-in-arm, one of Olivia’s classmates made a comment that both touched me, and caught me completely off guard.
‘I wish my sisters gave me that much support…’
Granted, I felt bad for her because her comment was admittedly honest, but it made me feel incredibly happy that we had been there to witness that amazing moment in Livy’s life.
After she received her medal, I couldn’t help but think about the spiritual implications of the incident. It reminded me of a scripture that my dad used to always illustrate for me. Hebrews 12:1 says, ‘Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.’
My dad used to paint this picture of Heaven and my family members who have preceded us in death. He would tell me how Heaven’s stands were full of cheering people and angels… the huge ‘great cloud of witnesses’ if you will. Scripture tells us that the Spirit of God makes intercession for us. I guess you could say that whenever you are struggling through a tough situation – you’re facing an insurmountable obstacle, trying to clear the bar – there are droves cheering you on. I am sure you could debate the hermeneutics of that scriptural interpretation, but in my 5 year old mind, it was all the encouragement I needed. I wanted to ‘lay off the sin that so easily beset me and run with diligence’ the life that pleased God. I still think of this today.
As I walked past the cheering stands I thought – this is how heaven must be when we make a decision for Christ. We are definitely not alone in this race… We are encompassed with a GREAT cloud of witnesses.
posted by Amber | 9:34 PM
2 Comments:
I couldnt agree more. What a good analogy. You know they go CRAZY in heaven when people get born again...And Im so proud of Olivia when I heard that I was so fired up. You have to be invited to the Cadillac News track meet, its the elite in our area. And Liv is the elite of the elite. Im sooo proud.
Having recently taken up running, that metaphor is even better. I don't picture it as so sporty, but that's just me. But I love the 'cloud of witnesses' bit.
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