Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended it, but this one thing I do: forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, Philippians 3:13

A story is told of a man who had decided that he was going to swim the English Channel. After months of preparation he set off with a small boat besides him to monitor him whilst in the water. With each stroke that he pulled through the water he remembered the many hours training that had gone into achieving his goal. With steely determination he battled against jelly fish, currents, splash back from liners crossing within eyesight of him. Soon his destination was in sight and he could see banners being waived by a welcoming committee comprising of family members and friends.

Then the weirdest thing happened.

He turned around and began to swim back. The crew in the boat following him was screaming in his ear ‘What do you think you’re doing?’ Still he swam. Family members waiting to welcome him were hysterical with disbelief and confusion still he swam away from back to where he had come from.

The next day a TV crew went to his house to interview him. This had made national news. The big question everyone wanted to know. Why did you turn back? He turned his face into the camera and said these words,

“It’s simple, I got tired!”

Now whilst this story isn’t true and even may bring a smile to our faces, let’s not lose the irony. Is it right for us to spend all of our lives doing the correct things in order to meet Jesus only to give it all to the prince of this world? That’s just exactly what we do when we decide that walking the narrow path is too hard. One Christian author put it this way, three quarters of the way to heaven is all the way to hell.

Don’t let the devil take what he hasn’t earned. Let us make it our desire to stay with Jesus all the way.

The Richard Smallwood singers sing 'I have come too far.'