Wednesday's Word

Hebrews 10:23 NIV
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.

I feel compelled to tell you that it is not easy to adhere to the words of the verse I've listed above. In fact when everything around you, everywhere your eyes look is screaming "it's not working" - it's really difficult to hang on to the hope we possess. You're probably thinking, "Really?" or maybe you're like my grandson, Bailey, and you're thinking "Duh!" But it goes so much deeper than just this surface "I'm not seeing it." Because you see I'm not feeling it either. I'm not one of those who is so holy that I just fall to my knees and begin to cry out when things aren't matching up with the Word. O no! I'm one of those who keeps plodding while muttering to myself, "Okay, what's going on here? Let's see if I can figure this out."

Hmmm, now there's a word. Plodding. I looked up some facts about animals (Bailey's always giving me facts about animals - you know the kind I mean - the "facts" that you think are TUI - totally useless information). Did you know, for instance, a mouse's heart beats about 700 times per minute, and they live less than three years. The hummingbird's heart beats up to 1,260 times per minute during the day, but it actually slows to 50 beats per minute at night, and they live twice as long as mice. But an elephant's heart plods along at about 35 beats per minute, and they have been known to live more than 80 years. See, I told you. TUI!! Actually, I think this is more than TUI.

"Plodding." It's not exactly a pretty word. It makes me think of a person trudging along knee deep in mud or crossing blowing sand dunes in a blistering desert. The word plodding means "to work or to act perseveringly or monotonously; to drudge; the act of moving or walking heavily and slowly making laborious progress."

Do you feel like you're just barely plodding some days? Me, too! In fact that's exactly how I feel - like I'm trudging along knee deep in mud - and some days it feels more like I'm knee deep in quick sand.

We can get discouraged when we're plodding, because we aren't seeing results soon enough. Our dreams don't quickly materialize, so we consider throwing in the towel (see yesterday's post). But many times, if we would just plod on a little longer, we'd reach our goals. We can't see how close we are to our goals most of the time. How do you know ... maybe one more time of pulling your foot out of the mud - one more step - would put you in your "promised land." And sometimes these periods of plodding may even last years.

That's why I believe God loves the plodders. The Christian life is not so much of a sprint as it is a marathon, and it's better to have a good finish than a quick start. So, keep plodding, and I will too. Together we will draw strength from each other. We will lift each other up as we make this journey, and in the meantime we will pray for just enough grace to get us from glory to glory.