June 24, 2022 – Click here to listen
Today I close on my farm and begin the move-in process. It’s hotter than blazes here and I don’t think I will be working outside at all. Better to pace myself and make it to the finish line like the old turtle that is exceedingly slow but makes steady progress. The turtle’s strategy is to never stop but move at a comfortable pace. It does not run full tilt through the race. The bunny goes like a bat out of HADES but never reaches the finish line and has an early fade and nap and loses the race.
I went fishing with a guy like that yesterday. He literally ran everywhere he went while we loaded the boat. He was all over that boat like a monkey and I shook my head at his energy. My buddy who owned the boat let him drive. Even though we were laying on bean bags for the 70-mile trip offshore we were bouncing two feet off the deck with each big wave. He drove the same way he did everything – full speed. As we bounced along the guy on the bean bag next to mine asked, “Doesn’t he know he has two old men with bad backs riding back here?”
About two o’clock Mr. bundle of energy began to fade. I guess the heat and humidity sucked his remaining energy right out of him. He told me he had hit the proverbial brick wall. Even though I was nearly 40 years older than him I was able to finish out the day with relative ease. This youngster seemed to marvel at my conditioning; however, it was not my conditioning, I was pacing myself and that enabled me to finish up the day strong and relatively unscathed.
I say all this to tell you Rome was not built in a day, nor was the Sistine chapel painted by Michelangelo in a day. It took many years of painstaking work.
The Bible tells us to run the race as though to win it. To me, that means make steady progress and persevere.
2 Tim. 4:7
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
Have a great weekend and go to church this Sunday!