Just keep swimming

One of my favorite funny movies to watch is Finding Nemo.  In Finding Nemo, Marlin who is Nemo's son goes searching for Nemo who was kidnapped.  In their journey Marlin gets down and depressed, Dory who is helping Marlin find Nemo tells him, "Hey there Mr. Grumpy Gills, When life gets you down do you wanna know what you've gotta do?"  She goes on to tell him, "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming swimming swimming.  What do we do?  We swim, swim."

Everytime I hear that it reminds of a true story I once read about Florence Chadwick.  In 1952 she attempted to swim the chilly ocean waters between Catalina Island and the California shore.  She swam through foggy weather and choppy seas for fifteen hours.  Her muscles began to cramp, and her resolve weakened.  She begged to be taken out of the water, but her mother, riding in a boat alongside, urged her not to give up.  She kept trying but grew exhausted and stopped swimming.  Aids lifted her out of the water and into the boat.  They paddled a few more mintues, the mist broke, and she discovered that the shore was less than a half mile away. 

Sounds like life sometimes don't it.  Seems like we do all we can to stay afloat, we keep swimming and swimming through storms, rough waves, foggy weather, and choppy seas but the shore seems so far away and we just can't see it.  But I love the way Apostle Paul tells us to just keep swimming in Philippians 3:12-14, "I do not mean that I am already as God wants me to be. I have not yet reached that goal, but I continue trying to reach it and to make it mine. Christ wants me to do that, which is the reason he made me his.  Brothers and sisters, I know that I have not yet reached that goal, but there is one thing I always do. Forgetting the past and straining toward what is ahead, I keep trying to reach the goal and get the prize for which God called me through Christ to the life above."

Paul tells us to continue trying to reach the shore, because Christ wants us to.  Our heavenly father wants us to keep trying to reach the goal, reach the shore no matter what may come our way in life.  Thru storms, thru choppy seas, rough waves, foggy weather, when life doesn't make sense and its hard and tough, we are told too just keep swimming.  How do we keep swimming when we get tired like Florence Chadwick and just want to give up, take advice from King David, a man after God's own heart, in 1 Samuel 30:6, "David found strength in the Lord his God."  Find strength in God when we get tired and just want to give up and not continue swimming.  Take advice from Dory, Marlin's friend in Finding Nemo, When life gets you down do you know what you've gotta do, just keep swimming just keep swimming because your shore awaits you.  Don't be fooled by the fog of what you maybe going thru in life, the finish line, your shore is only a few strokes away.