Today’s word was really easy for me to “get.” I am in the home stretch of this Lenten photo-a-day discipline (day 42 of the “40” days of Lent to be more precise). There have been days I just wasn’t “into it.” There were days I asked why I should keep doing this. And interestingly enough, it was not in the first half of the journey, when I still had a long way to go, that I considered calling it quits. It is only over the last few days, as I am approaching the finish line, that I am tempted to say, “Good Enough!”
So why persevere if it’s becoming increasingly difficult? Perhaps there is a bit of pride going into this. Perhaps I am looking ahead to the weeks after Easter and do not want to look back on this as a failed attempt…especially when I got so close. Then again, who but me will really care?
This question goes well beyond this particular exercise. Why did I take a bunch of scouts up a mountain a few weeks ago? That wasn’t easy either. Why did I take another bunch of scouts on a bike trip that spanned the full 184.5 miles of the C&O Canal? That definitely required perseverance?
I am not sure I really have a good answer to this question. But, I would like to think that by testing ourselves we find out what we are capable of. By pushing ourselves beyond the comfortable, we discover that we can do much more than we would have initially thought. By extending ourselves beyond our own world, we might be able to help out those around us. I know that I have miles to go before I can claim to be living up to anywhere near where I wish I were on this ideal. But maybe, just maybe, by persevering in the little things, the big things will eventually come to be.
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