She's Got a Ticket to Ride

I found grace in a Zumba class tonight. Let me explain.

A few weeks ago, my gym started giving out tickets for Zumba class as a means to limit the ridiculous number of people who were attending. It's a great class, but it was getting pretty dangerous as 90-some women shimmied their way around the room. Now there are 56 tickets for Zumba class, first-come, first-served.

The first week I was 10 minutes early and got ticket 44. Last week I was 20 minutes early and got ticket 43. This week I was 20 minutes early and got nothing. I went to the locker room to plan my next move (read: go to the bathroom) and bumped into a couple girls from class who had tickets 55 and 56. We were talking for a while and the instructor came through and encouraged me to wait outside the door and she would try to sneak me in.

As I waited outside the exercise room, I met a lady with whom I've become friendly. We were laughing about the ticket situation and she said, "Did you get one?" I told her my tale. She said, "I have two", and then produced ticket number 34. She didn't get the chance to tell me how she'd gotten it, but I was so thankful!

Throughout the class, I kept thinking about how fortunate I was to be there, and that made me work much harder. I didn't take my presence in class for granted, and I wasn't congratulating myself for being so early, so organized or so dedicated (which is what I've done for the past two weeks when I've gotten tickets). Instead, I was grateful. When I wanted to slack off, I thought, someone gave something for me to be here.

Imagine if I approached my life that way! The Gospel tells me that my life is worth Jesus dying, it cost Him so much for me to enjoy the freedom I know. Am I living in light of that? I don't mean that Jesus' sacrifice should make me work harder, because I believe His work is sufficient. What I mean is, I should stop giving myself credit, stop trying to fast-forward through the waiting seasons of my life, and remember that Someone gave something for me to be here.