Commitment - The Empowering of Dreams 3-4-11

Anderson, South Carolina

Fifteen years ago twelve thousand of us sat transfixed in a convention center as Diana Golden described her uphill battle with cancer and downhill victories on Olympic ski slopes. At age twelve she endured amputation of her right leg after bone cancer caused a spontaneous fracture. She went on to earn a degree in English literature while continuing with skiing, eventually winning gold at the Olympic winter games in Calgary. Before retiring from skiing, Diana won thirty gold medals. In 1988 Golden received wide-spread recognition when Ski Racing Magazine and the United States Olympic Committee named her female skier of the year, choosing her ahead of all able-bodied skiers. Diana faced further severe challenges with breast cancer; bilateral radical mastectomies, hysterectomy, eventually dying of cancer at age 38. She found it in herself to fall in love, marry, and live well until her premature death in 2001.

Recently while on a stair climber in the gym at 6 AM, I noticed a man hobbling across the fitness floor, using a four-footed cane. Astounded to see him climb onto a vertical stepper, I wondered how it is someone barely able to walk assisted could use a climber. Over the next hour James proceeded to complete a full circuit workout using a variety of machines. Suddenly my pride at getting out of bed to work out at 6 AM seemed pathetic. I was instantly reminded of Diana Golden’s astonishing tenacity and commitment. Conversation with James revealed him to be doing no less than Diana Golden did with her own inspiring life, overcoming radical brain surgery, a catastrophic auto accident, and assorted surgeries. For ten years he could not even speak.

Barry was a minister here in South Carolina, happily married, fulfilling his life calling. He awoke in intensive care from a coma four months after being severely injured in a head-on collision while coming home from church one Sunday morning. Unable to speak or use his hands or legs effectively, he managed to get transport to the gym each day, and walk on the track with assistance. Eventually I was able to understand him and watch him make use of the same machines James uses each day. His commitment to rebuilding his life was nothing short of astounding. Several years ago he and his wife moved to a distant city to embrace a new life chapter.

For those facing the daunting challenge of gaining liberation from the bondages of drug addiction and alcoholism, a challenge made to them at the onset of recovery is “If you want what we have then you must do what we do.” Recovery from addictions or catastrophic illness is the hardest work humankind will ever undertake. Success mandates the seeker want recovery even more than he or she needs it. Diana Golden wanted to ski more than anything in the world. She did the hard things Olympic skiers do to win; not letting the loss of a leg to cancer get in her way. James and Barry didn’t allow catastrophic injury and illness to obstruct their quests for independence and physical fitness, wanting to get up at 5 AM more than wanting to stay in bed. Those wanting sobriety make it the most important thing in their lives.

Those of us visiting the gym daily wonder where most of our members are. Despite having 8,800 members, even on crowded days, no more than a couple hundred people will be found in the building. At many hours there are less than ten of us present. Recently reported national utilization studies reveal eighty percent of fitness memberships are never used. An estimated $14 billion a year is spent on services never utilized. $4 billion is spent annually on home fitness equipment, most of it seeing essentially no use. Further analysis suggests three and a half weeks is the average tenure of fitness facility use in the United States. The average diet resolution lasts a mere seventy two hours. As a nation we are not committed to good health or winning gold.

A mantra in the recovery world is “just keep doing the next right thing.” A succession of ‘next right things’ can lead to clean sober living with its fruits of good health, meaningful relationships, and fulfillment of life purpose. We learn living sober will lead to sober thinking. Thinking sober is not nearly as likely to lead to sober living. Merely thinking about Olympic gold is not likely to yield it. One has to get up in the dark and be at the gym first thing to build, rebuild, and retain the fitness and strength needed to gain aureate rewards. As wondrous as Olympic gold and fame might be, they hardly compare to the wonder coming from regaining the physical ability to ride a bike, to walk, to speak intelligibly, to hold a knife and fork and feed oneself, to think clearly.

I recently spend two hours with a cocaine addict who fails to understand that doing those things we don’t necessarily feel like doing can empower our dreams, giving us a life of nearly unimagined abundance. None of us feel like going to the gym in the dark on a frozen winter morning, but the fruits of our labors are delicious. We go. No one feels like going through the emotional and physical torments of detox, withdrawal, and learning new ways of living. We do it. For several years my friend has said he knows what to do but is not doing it. He wonders why life is not working for him. He doesn’t yet have the incentive or commitment to do things differently than he has done them in the past. We often quip that insanity is doing the same thing, expecting a different result. Diana, James, and Barry quickly learned victory on the slopes and in life requires extraordinary effort. They achieved extraordinary results. It can be so for my friend who has struggled for so many years.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.

In the gym, we focus on the rewards of strength, good health, even Olympic gold. We set aside all those things that would distract us from our goals. We commit ourselves to extraordinary discipline. In recovery we focus on the happy, joyous and free life that is available to those who seek sobriety and good living above all else. We commit ourselves fully to those measures and steps that will rocket us into the fourth dimension of living. We learn in the gym, on the slopes, and in recovery rooms that we seek spiritual progress, not having yet achieved perfection.

Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.

Sometimes we just surprise ourselves, and we end up living out our dreams with the help of those that love us, here on earth and in Heaven above, if we work hard. Remember, Jesus didn’t feel like going to Calvary. He really didn’t but he did so, that we could win eternal gold.