Living Intentionally - Break A Hip

Living Intentionally - Break a Hip

Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new. —Albert Einstein

IT ALL HAPPENED in slow motion. I could feel myself falling, but for the life of me, I couldn’t catch myself. I was going down, and I was going down hard. Lying on the ground, I was bewildered, frustrated—and embarrassed. And I was mad at the world.

No, I didn’t trip. This was a full-fledged, self-induced fall. I fell off my bicycle while learning how to “clip in.”

To take my bicycling to the next level, Steve introduced me to the concept of clipping in. In order to optimize the strength and power of the quadriceps and glutes, many bikers buy a unique type of shoe that actually attaches to specially designed pedals. The problem is, it’s not natural! It’s tricky to get started and almost impossible to stop—without the help of asphalt. So there I was, starting, stopping, and falling. After three tries, my right hip looked like hamburger meat!

Clipping in, like living intentionally, is not for sissies, those afraid of failure, or those who are willing to pass on the fabulous adventures that come with optimizing life. Counterintuitive to conventional wisdom that says play it safe and you’ll live happily ever after, I believe we need to go out on a limb and be willing to fall a time or two if we want to live intentionally.

I have met many women who have so much to offer but fail to take their skills and talents to the next level. As a result, they never enjoy the abundant life God intended for them. When the road gets hard, obstacles get in our way, or we fail, we tend to say, “Oh, it must not be God’s will.” Really?

How do you know that he didn’t intend for you to have to work hard, fail, try again, practice, and dedicate yourself to a dream? Why do you think it should always be easy to be in the middle of his will?

Put your hope in the LORD.Travel steadily along his path.He will honor you by giving you the land. You will see the wicked destroyed. (Psalm 37:34)

I fell three times and it hurt like the dickens but know what? It was not God’s will that I not succeed—it was God’s will that I keep trying and stop being a sissy.