It was a hoodie-kind-of-morning when I tested the weather out of the car door with an arm. I put on the jumper and made my way to the starting area of the City to Surf.

The hoodie, a gift, had been given to me to use pre-event, with the expectation it would be donated to the side of the road when things heated up. I liked the grey colour, logo design, and general fit, so it stayed on me for a good part of the day.

It was when I took it off that I looked a little closer at the word I’d been sporting. The letters weaved through the design, and I strung them together. It was then that I got a little sheepish.

‘Unstoppable’.

That’s what I declared as I’d walked around that day.

I do like a good challenge. But I wouldn’t say I’m all-out unwilling or incapable of recognising when I’ve hit my limit. Or just unable to be stopped or tamed by anyone that was interested in doing so. Was it a general mantra? I was pretty unstoppable when I’d looked for a coffee shop on Rokeby road during the ‘fun-walk’.

The cringe that the word provoked in me belonged to its questionable intention. Being unstoppable, assumedly brought about by willed decision over wild incapability, pushes the limits of no compromise, no giving up and no ‘merely meeting expectations’.There’s a sense of ‘extreme’ surrounding it. I was its advocate.

Right now at the Big Table, we’ve stopped to ruminate in Romans 8. The chunky chapter, in both content and truth, celebrates the fact that sin has been kicked to the ground by Jesus; we’re no longer slaves to the law, but filled with the Spirit of God who defeated it.

“But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it.”

Romans 8:10-12

It’s here that I’m given plenty of reasons to consider myself unstoppable; an obligation to something far beyond the world and its expectations.

The moment we’re filled with the Spirit of God, He gives us a deep and enduring reason to think and live out unstoppable lives.

Unstoppable at proclaiming His goodness,

Unstoppable at sharing hope, 

Unstoppable at loving deeply

Unstoppable at forgiving 

Unstoppable at showing mercy 

Unstoppable at extending grace 

Unstoppable at pushing through adversity when all thoughts, feelings and doubts creep up. 

The hoodie makes me smile. It warms me in a far deeper way than it was even designed to do.