(1 minute, 24 seconds)
High jumping is a complicated sport. I speak from experience.
Crucial elements include: an accelerated arc approach, firm foot plant and push off with simultaneous dual arm swing overhead, arching one’s body in a giant “C” over the bar head first, and the most crucial element of all: “the snap.” The snap is the phase when the jumper quickly folds their body at the apex of the jump so their feet don’t knock down the bar.
“You’ve lost your snap,” my track coach stated simply after watching me knock the bar down and struggle practice after practice. This was easier for her to say than for me to fix! And yet, sometimes, the starting point for getting your game back together is simply identifying what is missing.
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Several weeks ago, I interviewed for a full-time job that would have allowed me to use my college degrees and decades of experience in orthopedics and health/fitness. There was one problem: I didn’t want to do it.
When I shared this with my church small group, one friend pointedly asked me if I was bored. That’s what good friends do; they lean in and listen to the deeper beatings of our hearts.
I laughed, “No, I’m definitely not bored!”
I’m grateful for her question, which put a small pebble in my shoe to awaken a realization that something within me, or in my priorities, was off. I have been moving decidedly in a new and different career direction, but for one long, dry spell, I lost my belief in what I was doing and my confidence in where I was headed. For a season, I lost my snap.
I wonder if you have a subtle or drastic disorientation in an area of your life? Have you noticed a recent inability to continue to hurl yourself successfully over the high jump bar of life with dedication, passion, and joy? Have you lost your snap?
I propose a two-part remedy for restoring your “snap,” that essential spark of purpose and momentum:
1. Identify what is missing in your approach to life and why.
2. Restore your confidence by placing your firm reliance on the One who called you and on His unwavering faithfulness. “He who promised is faithful.” Hebrews: 10:23
Let’s be careful not to stumble, slip, and knock down high bars in life by forgetting or underestimating the supreme Kingdom value of what God has called us to and enabled us to do.