Florence Chadwick, an American swimmer, was the first woman to swim the twenty miles across the English Channel from France to England in 1950. A year later she successfully swam the same distance from England to France. After tackling the English Channel in both directions, Florence set a new and ambitious goal to be the first woman to swim twenty-one miles from Catalina Island to the west coast of California.

Florence had trained hard and she was ready for this new challenge, but there was one big problem: fog. In the early morning of July 4, 1952, the ocean between Catalina and California was shrouded in it. Florence could barely see the accompanying boats beside her, and the water was bone-chilling.

After fifteen hours of swimming nonstop, Florence was fatigued and freezing so she asked to be pulled from the water. Her mother and trainer were both in a boat next to her and told her to keep going; they were getting near the coast. But all Florence could see was fog.

After being pulled out, she realized she was only a half mile from her goal. When she learned how close she was she said, “I’m not excusing myself, but if I could have seen the shore, I might have made it!” It wasn’t the distance or the cold that ultimately sabotaged Florence’s efforts, it was the fog. When she couldn’t see her goal, she lost hope, and when she lost hope, she lost the will to endure.

This story provides us with a great truth: Hope that comes from vision helps us endure, but without hope, endurance dies.

This means that as you move toward your God-given goals, you must endure in spite of what you see with your physical eyes. At those times when all you see is “fog,” and you want to give up because things aren’t working out as quickly or as smoothly as you hoped, go to God and ask for confirmation that you are headed in the right direction. Then, when you have His thumbs up, focus once again on your goal to keep hope and endurance alive! Set your mind on pleasing God. Set your mind on success. And remember that every worthwhile goal is worth fighting for.

You’ll be happy to know that even though Florence gave up the first time, two months later, on a sunny day without fog, Florence completed the swim, and she set a new speed record for the Catalina-California crossing.

Don’t give up!

Additional Resources

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