I'm Pressing On

I was listening to a message from a revival service we had back in 2023 tonight where the evangelist shared about Florence Chadwick that tried to swim from the Catalina Island to the coast of California.  A 26 mile swim across the Pacific, a thick fog set in where Chadwick could not see anything but the boats that journeyed next to her. As exhaustion set in and unable to see where she was, she begged to be taken from the water.  Her mother, a passenger on one of the boats, encouraged her that she could make it, the shoreline was not that far away. She continued on for a while longer but determined that she just could not make it and had herself removed from the waters, her quest had ended. Once on the boat and able to see past the fog, she realized that the goal, the shoreline of California, was only a half mile away. A mere two months later, Florence got back into those same waters to try the feat once again.  Just as before, the fog set in and visibility of what was before her was blurred.  Did she give up? Not this time.  She had the shoreline in sight and no matter what, she was not getting out of that water until she made it.  She completed the crossing of the Catalina Channel, becoming the fastest to ever do it, man or woman.

Why did I share that? Because we have lost sight of the shoreline.  We have become so wrapped up with what we have in this moment, what is right in front of us that we forget there is a destination for us to get to when all of this is finished. Do we get weary? Yes. Are there obstacles that mount up in our way? Absolutely! But we were not told to be quitters but overcomers. The apostle Paul wrote it this way to the church at Phillipi, "Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe. Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more: Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;

Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing. Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample. (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)

 For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:" (Phillipians 3)

Paul described here a warning to us of the dogs and evil workers of what is now our time. Those things which would draw and pull at our attention and our affection. He shares how he, of all people, should be counted above being the "best of the best" so to speak. But what did he say? That everything that would be counted as a gain for him, he counted as a loss because he had seen the finish line. He forgot those things that were behind him: the Pharisees, those friends he had ran around persecuting Christians with, the wealth and fame that he had. And for what? To press towards the mark of the high calling of Jesus Christ. 

For us today, that mark seems as if it is getting farther away instead of closer.  Just like Florence Chadwick in her first attempt to cross the Channel, we let our vision become blurred with the "fog" rolling in.  We can choose to, like Florence, give up just before we get there. Or we can choose to press on.

In Jesus name, I'm pressing on!