The duel

There are days like today that show up now and again. Days that hit you in the face like a determined sparring partner. Days when money is low and morale is even lower. I know those days and have faced off with a few in my time. So I've learned to deal with them well. These days come, not to kill you but to make you stronger. I deliberately use the metaphor of a sparring partner to describe a day like this.

It enters into the ring with you, intent on showing up your weaknesses because it already knows your strengths. You maneuver a little to the left, your senses razor sharp, expecting the stinger because you know that it will come. Your face is the script of past encounters with this unrelenting fighter. You were pretty once...... Wham! Your dropped jaw and aching ear tell you that once again, you've been hit in this perpetual duel. Except that you are still on your feet. In days gone by, you were on your back already by now, moaning and muttering, hovering between green meadows and red earth, wondering what happened.

'I'm getting better at this', I say to myself. I smile, and dance around a bit more. 'Is that the best you've got?', I taunt this Day, and beckon with my boxing gloves, Muhammad Ali-style. The growl on this friend's face tells me that I've found his weakness too. This challenge is more in the heart than in the heave of a fist. The more I learn to dance in my opponent's face, the longer I last in this fight. So I do another jig. One-two, one-one-two. I skip about like a happy gazelle.

I don't know how long this will last, but now I am happy again. I'll stay on my feet and land a few punches of my own, following the directions of my Coach, who seems to be playing a familiar tune for me to dance to. I laugh. This is no boxing match. It is a victory dance. I am refreshed now. I know the song that's playing. It's called: Bigger than all my worries. God is bigger than any mountain I can or cannot see.