We are leaving this morning to head to Vienna. My friend Britta said it is her favorite city in the world. Coming from a world traveler, I can’t wait to see what lies ahead. If the ten minute van ride with my parents and their friends last night is any indication....the 2 hour drive could be very interesting. They crack me up.

 

Ty is having a blast and he really needed this. I am trying to just relax now and enjoy this time with him. The last couple of days I have had to focus on my skiing and it has been hard to have patience with him jumping all over me, being silly as a 9 year old could possibly be, and not wanting to leave my side. Yesterday, he even was begging for me to let him ride in the boat while I skied in the tournament, then he was upset with the judges for not letting me win. Ha.

 

This morning I am reflecting a bit on this experience. The words “Trust Me” have constantly come into my head from the time I arrived here on Sunday. This morning, I was reminded of those words and was immediately relieved and understood a bit of what has happened. I must continue NOW to trust Him and His plan.  I reread all of the many verses and prayers I had been claiming and standing on. I also reread the words of encouragment people had been sending me. I looked at them from a different perspective this morning...not just from a ski perspective but from the experience of this journey.

 

You see every verse that was sent to me was about being strong in the Lord, allowing His spirit to fill me with His strength and power and peace. As I reflect back on the last two weeks and especially yesterday, I can honestly say that I did ski in the power of  His might. That I was made strong in Him. The way I skied over the last two weeks with only 10 days to practice after 5 years off was truly amazing. I did ski in His strength and was made strong to do what I did on the water. I know that I gave it everything that I had in practice and yesterday in competition. I gave my best and I will trust God to take care of the rest.

 

For goodness sakes, every day I went further down the course. I wasn’t in much pain except on Wednesday of last week. I never missed 35 off from the time I tried it and I was blessed to feel what it was like to run 38 off again the day before I left....something I never dreamed possible. I must say, not much feels better than that on the water except for running 39 of course, but that was years ago.  

 

I felt His power in my body, in my mind and in my spirit. I was at peace the entire time, never panicking even when I didn’t know which ski I was going on two days before I left. Even yesterday, I was strong on my first pass, there were no nerves yesterday and I was smiling and laughing with the driver in the ends. I was focused and had no doubt that I could do it.

 

What was confusing was that I was lead to many verses that said, “I will be with you, I will not let you fall, I will lead you to victory, I will uphold you with my hand.” My question was “why didn’t you uphold me?” “Where was the victory?” It was like I was a deer running through the woods and was shot out of no where. I was running the course beautifully and then wham....it was like someone had shot my hip and I was done. As I was in the water I couldn’t understand how so many people had been lead to send me those verses up to the day I competed that said, “I will uphold you!” and here I sat in the water done after 2 passes. But as I reflect back, I was upheld the last 2 weeks in a most amazing way. I was brought here for some purpose and was upheld emotionally and literally on the ski each day without injury as I prepared for this journey. And now...I continue to be uphold by His might as I know that it’s ok and that His plan is sovereign.

 

I reread Romans 4:19,20 where it said that like Abraham, I am not to weaken in faith by considering the weakness in my body and I am not to allow unbelief or distrust concerning God’s call and plans and promises. Yesterday I was focused on the first part of that verse...I was strong in my faith that despite the stiffness and weakness in my body, I could trust Him. Today I reread this and the second part of the verse pops out to me....I am not to allow unbelief or distrust concerning God’s call to come upon me.

 

This is what happened briefly yesterday. I looked at the circumstances and questioned the call, the plan and the promise. I was looking at one small part of the picture...the problem with that is that I cannot see it all.  Verse 21 reminds me to be fully satisfied that God is able and mighty to keep His word and to do what He has promised. This gives me peace and the words “trust me” come flooding back into my mind.  I do trust you God....I don’t have to know or reason out what is going on, I will simply trust that I am where you want me to be and am carrying out your will even though I don’t understand it.

 

The next verses I reread was about God moving on my behalf. Yesterday I felt like I had to defend myself on the chat rooms. I have had to ‘defend’ myself when people come up and ask ‘what in the world happened out there???” Today I see verses that God is my vindicator and I can just lay aside what people have said and focus on the truth...that God loves me and I am not defined by what people say or how I perform. I am also seeing the verses that my battle isn’t against flesh and blood. It isn’t against those who speak negative things. When I was claiming those verses throughout the week, I was looking at it from the perspective that my battle isn’t against those on the water...now I see that it isn’t against people in general, especially those who are ‘naysayers’ and negative spirits.

 

Other verses on my ‘claiming’ sheet reminded me to ‘keep on believing’. Yesterday I was focused on these verse to get me through the preliminaries to the finals. Today I look at these verses and they bring comfort and I know that I wrote them not just for yesterday, but for today as well. They are to encourage me to keep on believing, to trust Him, to allow Him to be my vindicator, to focus on truth, to keep on keeping on and to praise Him for all that He is doing and for who He is. I know that He who began this good work in me will carry it to completion. It may not be on the top of the podium like I had envisioned but nonetheless, it is for an eternal purpose far greater.

 

Thank you once again for coming on this journey with me! I will continue to write but for now, I must wake up my boy and head to Vienna!