Do you ever feel your life is full of many “almost made it” opportunities? The interruptions of life continually prevent you from accomplishing your goal and living out your dream. You almost got the promotion, almost got married, almost won the competition, almost got into that college, almost bought the house, almost had a baby, almost beat cancer…

They can happen to us or even our loved ones, either way they put a sharp curve in the road, taking us in another direction, to a destination we have no desire to visit.

Some times these are self-invoked and happen because we (or another around us) turned the steering wheel in the wrong direction due to a bad decision – texting while driving, cheating on our taxes, shaving our legs with a dull razor.  (Uh…TMI on that last one?)

Mark is turning 40 this year and to celebrate it, he made it his goal to complete an Ironman 70.3 triathlon - a 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike and a 13.1-mile run. Being the supportive wife that I am, I offered to watch him do it. But he had other plans. He asked if I’d train with him to do one. Uh…

After reviewing my vows, I realized that I had agreed to support him in “sickness” and even though he didn’t agree that this was an illness. So I told him I’d think about do a triathlon but on a much smaller scale.

Our local YMCA has a triathlon team that meets throughout the week, offering swimming and running clinics and bike rides, all for beginners to the elite. One by one my family joined the team...Anastasia, Mark, Noah. I watched their practices from afar and cheered the kids on at few local children’s triathlons. From the sideline, I began catching the tri-bug.

Our kids participated in a triathlon camp this summer at our local YMCA and loved it. Now they are sold on it and are training for a kid's triathlon that's coming up in a couple of weeks.

Yesterday I did a bike ride with them after school. Noah, our 10-year-old, wanted me to take my road bike because it has a “speedometer” on it. Periodically he’d ask about our speed and distance. He seemed content that we were averaging 10mph, however, each time I looked back at them, both kids appeared to be on a leisure stroll, not a training ride. So I asked if we should bump it up to 12mph or more.

“No, I don’t think I go that fast,” he spouted. Noah is our conservative child. His mind was telling him to keep it safe but I knew he could handle it. So I did the obnoxious mom thing and gradually began upping the pace 10, 11, 12 mph...looking back periodically to see how they were doing. I kept us there for a few minutes and checked again – they still appeared to be on a joy ride.

“How you guys doing?”

“Great!”

“We’re going 15 mph!”

“No way!! I didn’t think I could go that fast!” Confidence was building and it shown in his eyes.

Numbers can be intimidating. They give us a concrete goal that we either do or do not meet. They can inspire us to push our self beyond old limitations. At the same time, they can also paralyze us if the hurdles before us are too daunting. Doubt takes over and it pollutes our vision and it's hard to move forward.

God didn’t create us for mediocrity. Jesus told us we’d do greater things than He. But, there is wisdom found in realistiic goal setting. Growing up, I wanted to be the first female, professional soccer player but my genes thwarted that one. Just because we want to do or become something doesn't necessarily make pursuing it a wise use of our time and effort.

How are we to balance goals that lead us to the greatness God created us for without misleading ourselves?

Have you seen “Up” yet?  I just came back from my second viewing and just in case you are wondering if all the glowing reviews you’ve been hearing are true, well, the answer is an unequivocal yes.  This film works is enjoyable on so many levels, it is sure to become a Disney/Pixar classic.  

What struck be watching this movie the second time around are the many layers present in this movie.  It’s an adventure movie that (mini spoiler alert ahead) touches on themes of life, death, loneliness, companionship, abandonment, greed, friendship, perspective, and priorities.  Not bad for a film that features talking dogs!