“Let It Be Done to
Me as You Have Said”
Competitive Swimming
and Holy Obedience
#betyoudidn'tevenknow thiswasathing |
Over
the course of my lifetime, I’ve worn many hats. Currently I’m working towards a
beretta. (After all, nothing says manliness quite like a clerical pompom.) I’ve
done everything from picking up after dogs on a beach as a lifeguard, to
playing the piano in a hotel, to teaching high school in Yonkers, New York. In
stark contrast (or perhaps not so stark) to my current pious occupation as a
seminarian, I was once a swim coach, and before that a swimmer. I coached the
Roosevelt High School swim team in the Bronx for three years and spent a year
coaching the younger age groups (6-11 years old) at Coastal Maine Aquatics. I
spent ten years as a competitive swimmer myself.
See? Told you I was a swim coach. |
For
those of you who swam with me or perhaps are swimmers yourselves. You might be
tempted to scoff at this and blame it on lost brain cells from the chlorine
fumes. Swim practice is not the most contemplative environment nor are the
conversations that occur amongst teammates often the most edifying (those who
swam with me know just what an understatement that is…) I grant all that. Even
a week ago, I would have been shocked that I was ever writing such an article.
But hear me out. I think you’ll agree that there are definite lessons that
carry over.
The
first I would like to discuss is the lesson I learned in obedience.
Yeah, more rolls than that. |
For
first few years of swimming, I wasn’t all that fast. I was basically in the
middle of the pack for my age group, but I certainly wasn’t breaking any
records and I didn’t expect to any time soon. Consequently, it was a big shock
to me when at age eleven I did break
a record. It was the state age group record for the 11-12 400 long course meter
freestyle. It was a long course record (50-meter pool) and there are no long
course pools in the state of Maine, so it wasn’t the most competitive record on
the books. But still, this was the first of several state age group records
that I would break over the course of my swim career, and it made me stop, step
back and wonder, “How did I get here?”
The
truth was, I wasn’t doing anything extraordinary with my training. Some of my
teammates would work out on their own, go for runs outside swim practice, and do
crunches every day when they got up. Porky ten-year-old me wasn’t about to do
any of that. The extras that I associated with top notch swimmers weren’t part
of my routine. So how did I suddenly get so fast? The truth was, I got fast by
simply doing what my coach told me.
Slackers.. |
All
this stuff went on and I can’t say I was never guilty of any of it. But at that
age, I basically did what my coach asked me to do. If the set was hard, I did
it anyway. If they asked me to change my stroke up, I tried to do it (with varying
degrees of success mind you.) Not surprisingly, just by showing up to practice
and doing what I was told, I got to be good at swimming. It was as simple as
that.
If
saying yes to what your coach asks of you makes you a better athlete, then you
can imagine how choosing to always say yes to what God asks of you makes you a
better Christian. If holiness is what you’re shooting for (and you should be
since that’s what a happy, fulfilling life looks like) then all you have to do
is just keep saying yes to God. It is no more complicated than that.
"Let it be done unto me as you have said." - Luke 1:38 |
In
my own life, I could make a laundry list of things God has asked me to say yes
to. Some of them were easier than others. Spending more time with Him in the
Eucharist took some discipline but was pretty easy once I realized who it was
who was in that tabernacle. Letting go of my ambitions and saying yes to a life
of poverty, chastity and obedience was more difficult. When I saw that God
completely paved (and paid…) my way to attend Fordham University, it was pretty
easy to say yes to that. Saying yes to fasting on Fridays during Lent was more
difficult. (Gluttony is my specialty vice…) Whether it meant more time in
prayer, giving up some sort of vice or sin, or going to places that would
stretch me and help me grow, all I had to do at each stage was just keep saying
yes to Him. In time, I would become a humbler, more loving servant of God.
"Yes coach, right away coach, absolutely coach." |
More
reflections on the spiritual lessons you can learn in the pool will be forthcoming,
as soon as I get a chance to write them. Until then, practice hard and pray
harder!
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