Traveling At a High Rate of Speed

What do Susan Boyle and yellow angry birds have in common?  They are both icons that have inspired me in 2011. 

A year ago, in January, I felt God impress upon me a challenge for 2011--to "travel at a high rate of speed."  In my mind's eye, I captured a picture of those yellow angry birds, hurtling through the air in a slow arc, until with one tap of a finger, they charge toward their mark with amazing velocity and power.  

Then half way through the year,  I ran across a video of Susan Boyle. I may have been the only person in America who didn’t know who Susan Boyle was.  That happens to me sometimes—I stumble across an icon who is popular in the mainstream of culture, only to realize that I’ve been obliviously unaware of something that has captured the attention of everyone around me.  But, now, I've watched Susan Boyle's audition on Britain’s Got Talent dozens of times.  I’m in love with the story of Susan Boyle.  She has represented for me something important that God's been working in my life in 2011. It  comes from Philippians 3:14.  Paul encourages, 

"I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

I press on... I strain forward… I forget what is behind… I strain forward to what is ahead… I hold true to what I have attained. In other words, the apostle Paul says, my pursuit of holiness is active and passionate: I desire to be more like Jesus Christ, and I press on to attain that.’

The Greek word dioko, "press on,"  means "hasten, run, press on"  This is the same word which elsewhere is translated "persecute, run after, pursue." It implies a kind of dogged persistency and urgency

Susan Boyle is a visual picture of that kind of living.  She is a woman who was not attractive according to the world’s values.  She was perceived as quirky among those who would judge by more sophisticated standards, yet…she is a woman who bravely strained forward.  She took a risk.  In front of a crowd full of strangers who are laughing at her, she accelerated her speed.  I don’t know anything about Susan Boyle’s level of faith, but regardless, she is one of my new heroes.

For all of 2011, I've had a strong sense of God, standing before me, urging me forward, cheering me on, calling me to stretch myself and build endurance in my faith, but it’s always my move.  I always have a choice to run forward with confidence or not.   

 

Angry Birds and Susan Boyle have both served as potent reminders to me in 2011 that I can run the race at a high rate of speed and with confidence—confidence that he who began a good work in me will be faithful to bring it to completion; confidence that I can approach His throne of grace (Heb. 10:19); confidence in my approach to others (Hebrews 13:6); confidence, that just like an underrated Susan Boyle, I am responsible to use whatever gift I have received to serve others, as a faithful steward of God’s grace (1 Peter 4:10), believing that He who began a good work in me will bring it to fruition!   And just like Susan Boyle, I can stun the world with the deposit that God has entrusted to me (2 Tim 1:14).  Not me, but Christ in me, “so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.”  (I Peter 4:11)