Just 2 more seconds to bliss.

I wasn't expecting much of myself at IPPT, our annual army fitness test.

I would usually fail once, or twice, but eventually pass with persistence.

Last week, I took the test and shocked myself when I met the minimum criteria for push ups and sit ups, the former being notoriously difficult to do due to a computer checking all manner of points from posture to the distance to the ground, in order to get a 'count'. Mistakes include a body that isn't low enough, or a butt-high posture, and so on.

So it came to my running, which I was fairly confident in. After all, of all of the little exercises I do, I do running the most. It should be an easy pass, I thought.

When I crossed the finish line, I was crestfallen to see the timing: 13:51. The pass mark was 13:49, so I was 2 seconds short.

Questions came to my mind of course - what if I just pushed that bit harder? Should I have worn a stopwatch?

I felt really silly after it all. But I felt God telling me this: "You did your best James. Yes you could have done better, so learn from this. But I am proud of you for trying and for getting a near pass even though you hardly have the time to exercise on top of all the other worries in life. Take this session as a warm up and try again!"

So I will arm myself with a stopwatch this time and this week, I will try again. Dear God, thank You for encouraging me even though bliss seems so near yet so far. I realise that I should not get hung up over things like this, as it is far better to move on to achieve greater things than linger on what cannot be changed. In Jesus' name, amen.