Sixty-Four and Still Swimming

In 1978, a twenty-eight-year-old distance swimmer named Diana Nyad attempted to swim the 110 miles from Cuba to Key West, Florida. She failed. The currents, the jellyfish, the sheer distance — they defeated her. And for over thirty years, she walked away from the dream.

But it never walked away from her.

In her sixties, she returned to the water. Three more times she tried. Three more times, the ocean won. Each attempt reminded her she was older, slower, more vulnerable than before.

On September 2, 2013, at sixty-four years old, Diana Nyad staggered onto the shore at Key West after swimming for nearly fifty-three consecutive hours. Sunburned, lips swollen, barely able to stand, she delivered three messages to the crowd: "Never, ever give up. You are never too old to chase your dream. It looks like a solitary sport, but it is a team."

Paul wrote to the Galatians, "Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up." In due season — not in our preferred season. Not according to our timeline. The Almighty never wastes a single stroke of the journey, even the ones that seem to carry us nowhere.

Whatever ocean stretches between you and the calling God has placed on your heart, keep swimming. Your shore is closer than you think.