Perseverance

Walter Elliot said, "Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after another."

Many would define perseverance as one consistent day after another, but the fact is that no one is consistently consistent in all things 100% of the time.

A better way to say it is that perseverance is 4 consistent days out of 5. Or 9 consistent days out of 10.

I love Paul's use of the phrase "press on" in Philippians 3. It communicates the idea of not just trying, but trying again. Paul admits that he is not perfect, has not yet attained all that he desires to be: (v. 13-14) But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal...

Perseverance isn't so much a matter of winning one long marathon as it is a matter of winning, or even "placing" in, the short races that you run day after day, hour after hour. It requires us to press on, even after minor setbacks and temporary defeats.

Perseverance is a lifetime accomplishment lived out one day at a time, one 40-yard dash at a time.

With love,

Mike