Strengthen Your Grip

Do you ever have days when you dread doing something?

That’s kind of like asking if the Pope is Catholic, isn’t it?

Whether it’s cleaning the garage, paying the bills, getting up rather than sleeping in, or making a difficult phone call, life is filled with stuff we just don’t want to do.

So what do we do about it?

Yesterday I read this verse:  “So take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees.  Mark out a straight path for your feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fail but become strong.” (Hebrews 12:13 NLT)

It reminded me of playing on the monkey bars in elementary school.  The monkey bars were FUN but every so often my hands would grow tired.  What did I do?  Instead of dropping I simply repositioned my hands.  I took a new grip.

Honestly though, sometimes in the dailiness of life I would just rather drop.  But just like a child on the monkey bars, if I drop I can’t play.  Sure, we need to rest, sleep and pace ourselves, but sometimes the anticipation of what we dread doing is worse than actually doing it.  Which is why we take a new grip with our tired hands, forge ahead, and do it anyway.

That’s what happened to me and my girlfriends yesterday.

We had a commitment each of us dreaded.  It sounded like a good idea when we scheduled the event but when the reality of actually doing it arrived, we were less than enthusiastic.  Secretly we all hoped it would be canceled.

So what did we do?  We drug our tired, over-worked little bodies into my (dirty!) SUV, headed north on the freeway and fulfilled our commitment.

In short, we took a deep breath, took a new grip with our tired hands and strengthened our weak knees. We did what we were supposed to do.

Were we glad we did it?  Yes, yes, yes! Following through on a commitment no matter how big or how small, almost always feels good.

How about you?  Was is that thing you dread? Take a new grip. Strengthen those weak knees and keep going. Refuse to drop.  Keep playing.