Walking along the narrow path

Matthew 7:13-14 (New International Version)
The Narrow and Wide Gates 13"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
I was a girls gymnastics coach for quite some time. I was fortunate enough to see some great gymnast practice and compete. These girls are so incredible to watch. They have the strength, stamina, and focus that I could only wish to have. These girls put in countless hours at the gym. This sport requires years of training and practice to become great. Dedication and perseverance are as important as natural ability. These girls start when they are very young and spend more time at the gym than most people spend at home. Their entire social life revolves around that facility. Their friends are their team mates, and their influences are their coaches. Being a gymnastic coach in my opinion is more than just teaching them about the sport. You develop a personal relationship with those kids. You instruct them, discipline them, and encourage them. The skills that they do requires a lot of concentration and development over the years. As they get older, and more mature in the sport they are able to reach higher levels of difficulty. Out of all the apparatus the one event that intrigued me the most was the balance beam.
The balance beam is 4.1' high, 16'4" long, and 4" wide. Not very easy to walk on, not to mention preform acrobatic skills. It is so interesting to me to watch the development of a girl who is training on this apparatus. When they start out as a young girl they have to learn how to walk on it, back and forth, over and over. This sometimes takes months or even years to be able to do comfortably. Then they progress to turns, and leaps. Eventually to cartwheels and handsprings. Then to tucks, and layouts(flips). One of the keys to being able to effectively preform on one of these balance beams, is where your focus lies. When learning to walk on these, they are taught to keep their heads up and not to look down. "Look down, fall down", that's what I used to tell them. When first getting comfortable with this apparatus, looking to one side or the other will cause you to fall that way. This reminds me so much of the narrow path we as Christians walk on a daily basis.
As disciples we are constantly maturing, constantly growing, and learning. We start off born again as new creations learning and growing as infants do. We learn how to walk on the narrow beam of salvation. As young gymnasts do we look left, or right, and stumble on the beam. When a gymnast first learns how to walk they start on what is called,"the low beam". This is done because the coaches know that they will fall off. This keeps them safe, provides them with confidence to walk down the narrow beam. Often the coach will walk next to them holding one of their hands to give them confidence and talk to them, encourage them correcting their mistakes. We as Christians have the same luxury, the blood of Jesus Christ gives us the confidence that tells us when we fall we will be allowed to get back up on the beam. God puts mentors in our life to hold our hand at first and show us the proper form in which to walk a successful beam. Just as gymnasts progress, the coaches change, coaches that are able to mold you and teach you how to use the gifts God has given you in order to walk the beam in a way that the Judge will be pleased with. As you progress and mature, your strength grows and your balance. You learn how to focus on the end of the beam in order not to fall. Some times the skills that are required, the elements that are in the routine cause you to stumble, or even fall. The good news is that unlike the judges at a gymnastics competition our Judge doesn't deduct for our falls. He allows us to confidently jump back on the beam to finish the routine.
The point is, that you don't put a five year old girl on a balance beam and expect her do an Olympic caliber beam routine. It takes time, and training to be able to comfortably walk down that narrow path. Gymnasts fall, over and over again. They get discouraged, and frustrated when they don't get the skills quickly. It is the coaches job to encourage them, and train them to focus on the future. To show them that in time they will be able to walk the beam and do skills on the beam with ease. As it is with us. We will fall and stumble, we will get discouraged and frustrated. We need to look to our Lord, our focal point so that we can learn to walk the path comfortably and with confidence. We need to keep our mentors close by and look to them for encouragement and wisdom. Paul had to encourage and instruct the churches, and Timothy. We need to stay in God's word in order to keep our eyes focused on the future. We stay in the Word so that we don't forget our basics, our foundation, our strength. The path is narrow, the journey is hard, the reward is glorious.