The Twenty-One Mile Challenge

Seeing where you’re going is more important than you think. Ask any of us who have meandered through a dark house on the way to a bathroom break in the middle of the night only to find out just how flexible our little toe is compared to the coffee table leg. Right?

Florence Chadwick isn’t someone we associate with being a visionary. She’s more of a cautionary tale.

This “Queen of the English Channel” earned that title by being the first woman to swim that twenty-one-mile-wide body of water in both directions.

Flossie (as I’ve taken to calling her) then set her sights on crossing another strait, this time on American soil. It’d be another twenty-one-mile attempt. (That’s quite the spoiler alert, Dave!)

It was July 4, 1952, when Flossie bravely plunged into the cold waters of Catalina Island on her way toward the California coast. With numb skin and practically fog-blindfolded eyes, she struggled to follow the guide boats. Still, she stuck to her task for FIFTEEN HOURS. (Pause right there! “I can’t see, I can’t feel, and yet I’m going to endure and push myself for fifteen hours?!” This woman had grit!)

Yet, valiant Flossie decided to give up.

Coach Milt encouraged her to continue. He was watching the navigation instruments and knew they had to be less than a mile to shore. But Flossie’s inability to see the shore gave her no visual cues to reassure her of her progress. Despite Milt’s encouragement, she decided to stop because she felt exhausted and disoriented. (Does that sound familiar?)

She was pulled into the boat and told she was less than two laps around a standard running track (750 yards) away from completing her challenge. She cried through frustrated, hot tears, “If I could have seen land, I might have made it.”

Friends, we MUST be able to see where we’re going. Our teams MUST see where we’re going.

Vision is so important in ministry. If we do not see where we are going, we will get discouraged and give up.

But don’t misinterpret what I’m saying!

You don’t need a GRAND PLAN for what the next five years will look like. You don’t need to define every detail of your ministry. You don’t even need a comprehensive plan for what 2025 will look like. That’s not vision.

You need to HAVE and GIVE what is required to make it through ministry’s twenty-one-mile challenges.

It’s as granular as asking the LORD what His sticky note is for you today. (1-3 priorities for the day…not too much, not too little, just those things that you see the Father doing)

And it’s as broad as clearly stating what you or your ministry will become as you work together. One I came up with a while back is, “We are a family of worshipers full of faith to walk in freedom.”

You might say, “By the zeal of the LORD, I will be healthy in all Five Faders: Artist, Shepherd, Priest, Educator, Producer and will guard against anything that keeps me from this pursuit.”

But if you can’t see where you’re going, you will likely quit just before reaching the goal. Take time today to assess where you are and where you’re going.

Oh, I almost forgot. Don’t get stuck if you’ve failed like Flossie.

Two months later, on September 4, 1952, she challenged herself to swim the Catalina Channel again. With clear weather, she finished her swim in 13 hours and 47 minutes, becoming the first woman to conquer the Catalina Channel. Go for it!

-Dave Helmuth
(purchase my book, "Worship Fertilizer: (the first hundred)" HERE)

The Twenty-One Mile Challenge (Nº 410)