My son was participating in the National Sea Rescue championships. It was my first time at such an event, and it was very interesting. In many of the items in the pool the swimmer had to pull a dummy (a plastic doll half filled with water) along. It was so funny seeing the figure bobbing along. One guy tied his doll on backwards. Everybody laughed at the doll being dragged through the water wrong side up.

In one of the items my son participated in, four of them had to work as a team. It was a challenging swim with different tactical exercises. They succeeded in executing everything correctly and did very well. At the end of the item, they all came together in a group so that the chief official could announce any disqualifications.

My son and his team were amazed to hear that they’ve been disqualified. They’ve done everything correct tactically. “True,” the official said. There was another reason for their disqualification. “One of the team members wore two pairs of swimming trunks!”

“What?” “Yes”, said my son. “Wearing two pairs of swimming trunks can give you an extra advantage. But the joke is that the guy who had on two pairs of swimming trunks was actually slowed down by it, because the second pair was far too large for him.” But rules are rules.

It’s the same everywhere. If you don’t keep to the rules, you are disqualified and you have no chance of getting on the podium. It’s the same for spiritual matters too: ⁵An athlete who refuses to play by the rules will never get anywhere.

That’s why it is so important to know the rules. I suspect the guy with the extra pair of swimming trunks didn’t know it was wrong. And he actually slowed himself down by doing so. If he had known the rules, he would not have disadvantaged himself and he wouldn’t have dropped his team.

We must know the “rules” to be a true child of God. I put rules in quotation marks, because they’re more like guidelines. Rules imply punishment and guidelines, love. The latter is God’s way of doing things. He wants to guide us in the right direction, with love.

We must be on the lookout for this. We must focus on God’s guidance, so that we can know exactly how we have to live life. I know we are going to make a few bad choices along the way. I know we are going to do a few stupid things here and there, sometimes because of ignorance and sometimes not, but thank goodness, God’s grace is sufficient to save us from this too.

The swimmer who dragged his doll upside down got out of the pool rather embarrassed, because everybody laughed at him. But he won’t make that mistake again. Next time he will make doubly sure that he doesn’t make a fool of himself again.

Let’s make sure too. Let’s sit at God’s feet every day. Let’s practise like a good athlete and grow strong enough to also wear the victor’s crown one day.

Scripture
2 Tim 2:1-7

Reflection
Where do you still make mistakes?
What do you need to do differently?
What has your race been looking like up till now?

Prayer
Dear heavenly Father, I want to live by Your rules. Help me to press through all difficulties, towards the prize and help me to hold on and out till the end. Amen.