This Week from Mitch

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

If I were to title this e-Messenger, I'd call it "Adventures in Swimming." I started swimming at a very young age and started competitive swimming at 7 or 8. My progression was pretty typical. For any swimmers out there, I swam at "Zones" at age 12, Junior Nationals by 15 or 16, Nationals a little later than that, and eventually at the collegiate level. In addition, I've swum and placed in the Wiki Rough Water (a 2.4-mile open-water swim), and I have done multiple Ironman and Half Ironman triathlons. It was a fun and full chapter of my life. Then, life, kids' activities, moves, youth sports, and other fun things took their place. Flash forward 13 years, and here I am. 

My journey back to the water does have a goal. I will be racing in the Beaufort 5K swim/run. It's a river swim of about 3.2 miles, with the average completion time for the swim being about an hour. I am, as you all know by now, racing with the goal of raising money for the Lutheran Services' New Americans program. I went into this thinking, "This should be fun!"

It's funny how hard a new Lenten discipline can be. With each stroke I take, I find myself yearning to be even a glimmer of the swimmer I was 13, 15, or 20 years ago. With lactic acid flowing through my shoulders, I find myself regretting bad choices I've made with my diet, regretting too many hours sitting when perhaps I could have been more active. Accepting who I am now versus who I once was has been humbling. I wonder if, in that humility, there might be a Lenten theme. 

Lent calls us to look at our lives through honest self-examination. In our examination, we are called to shave some of the chaff from our lives, that which keeps us from being who God has called us to be. Getting rid of the chaff is rewarding, but I can't say that it feels "fun." In my case, it's more like a process of rediscovery. 

This Lent, I invite you to share with me by making your own journey. Are there passions, spiritual or physical, that you once had but have slipped away? Can they be rediscovered? If not, why? If so, what's kept you from it? Can it, like the chaff, be shed? 

I don't know where this journey will lead. To be honest, a 5K swim with no walls and no bottom of a pool feels like a really long way. At the same time, 40 days from now, if I try, I might find myself a slightly better version of the person I am now. In our Ash Wednesday service, the Prayer Book is clear. Christ does not want to punish sinners; rather, he wants to, through repentance and forgiveness, restore us to grace. Restoration looks different for all of us. I'm looking for it at the pool where I'm training. Where will you find it?

In Christ,

Mitch