Dear Reader - I’ve said this in the past, but I believe some of the greatest practical truths for successful living can be found in the Bible.
In particular, the parables or stories that Jesus uses to teach are powerfully life-transforming, spiritually and practically.
Keep that in mind as you read today’s article.
Easy Come, Easy Go
Easyism dominates today.
A spirit of entitlement permeates.
Nobody wants to do anything that requires more than the minimum amount of effort.
If it doesn’t work the first time, just quit.
Almost all advertising is geared toward satisfying our immediate wants, with little to no effort on our part.
“Have it your way” is the mantra of the day.
That is why we have multiple generations of bored, ungrateful people today.
Ironically, that leaves the door wide open, with little competition for those who persevere.
The Trend Buckers
The few who buck this trend and pursue their dream or their chosen field of work/study soon find themselves light years ahead of their peers in terms of expertise and eventually compensation for their efforts.
There is a story about a farmer that Jesus tells that illustrates this point -
As the farmer planted his crop, most of the seed seemed to be wasted.
This story, found in Matthew Chapter 13:3-9, illustrates the importance of perseverance in achieving our desired results. A paraphrase reads:
A farmer went out to scatter seed in a field.
While the farmer was scattering the seed, some of it fell along the road and was eaten by birds.
Other seeds fell on thin, rocky ground and grew. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched and dried up, because there wasn’t enough soil for deep roots.
Some other seeds fell where thorn bushes grew up and choked the plants.
But the seeds that fell on good ground produced a hundred or sixty or thirty times as much as was scattered.
If you have ears, pay attention -
His last statement could be rendered:
“Hey you - Are you listening? Do you hear what I’m saying? Pay attention, this is important.”
Notice the yield from those few seeds was exponential. Imagine having a Return on your investment of 100x.
It was an simple process, but it wasn’t always easy. It didn’t happen right away. A lot of planning and hard work went into that yield.
Soil experimentation
Irrigation
Weed control
Wildlife mitigation
Preparation of Equipment and storage facilities for harvest time
We Don’t Live In a Vacuum
What if the farmer had quit after the first few attempts yielded little fruit?
What if he got discouraged and gave up when the birds came and devoured the seed before it even had a chance to germinate?
What if he decided that cultivating the soil, clearing the weeds and thorn bushes, and establishing an irrigation system was just too much work?
How many others would have been negatively affected?
Let’s take a look:
The farmer’s family food supply would be severely affected
Income from the sale of surplus yield would be diminished
The ability to purchase necessary living needs would be affected
The farmer’s employees would suffer income loss which would hamper their ability to take care of their families
Those in the community who depended on the farm yield for their own food supply would be affected
The tradesmen who built and maintained the farm equipment would not be able to sell their tools and therefore not be able to take care of their families
A Spiritual Focus
Of course, the immediate focus and application of this passage is the spreading of the precious seed of the Word of God.
Jesus himself said that most of the seed would not bear any fruit, but that was not a reason to quit. And that is why we must keep sowing.
Do it anyway.
Over the centuries since those words were recorded, the message of Christ has multiplied and spread to every part of the globe through every imaginable circumstance by those who persevered through it all. The yield has been in the billions.
This principle of perseverance can be applied to many other endeavors in life as well.
Dictionary.com defines perseverance as “the steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc., especially despite difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement”.
Perseverance is always referenced in the context of adversity or difficulty.
Thrivers and Divers
We all know those who seem to thrive through hard times with ease.
We also know those that nose dive at the slightest difficulty or opposition.
Whether we acknowledge it or not, our opinion of each is vastly different. The thrivers get all the respect.
The divers get none, right?
Come on, admit it - many times we, have also been guilty of diving when adversity hits.
If we have a sensitive conscience, we know this and we steer in the opposite direction as much as possible.
What we don’t always see is how much adversity the thrivers have experienced in the past that has brought them to this point.
Today’s culture tends to discount the value of adversity. Human nature is wired to avoid as much adversity as possible. Adversity is not fun.
But this attitude is what our conscience wars against.
The danger is that we allow our conscience to go dormant because we do not like being in the thick of the battle. We do not like conflict. We don’t enjoy the pain of the moment.
We lose sight of the goal and just go with the flow.
The Apostle Paul writes about this to the Corinthian Church. He compares the discipline of a champion athlete to one who is not serious and loses his focus.
He refers to this person as a castaway. (See 1 Corinthians 9:24-27)
Essential for Growth
Adversity is essential for growth. When things come too easy, they don’t hold much value in our estimation.
Growth is stunted.
Without learning to persevere through adversity, we don’t learn the value of hard work, ingenuity, building relationships, learning to trust others, or understanding our own 3Ps (Passions, Potential, and Personality).
Perseverance through adversity develops patience and strengthens us to weather even great storms when they come. And they will come. (Ref. James 1:2-4)
Second, perseverance through adversity equips us to help others who are experiencing similar circumstances. (Ref. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4)
Third, perseverance through adversity allows us to experience the fruit of our efforts that would not have been accomplished otherwise. (Ref. 2 Chronicles 15:7)
Finally, there is a massive reward for persevering. In the story quoted above, the farmer reaped exponentially more than he sowed. One hundred times more.
Lessons Learned
What can we learn from perseverance?
We learn that hard work pays off
We learn what works and doesn’t work (trial and error)
We learn how to improvise
We learn to improve what does work
We gain an understanding of how to do things we didn’t know before
We become part of a community with those who have gone before us or are in the struggle beside us
We learn to mentor others who are on the road behind us
We gain confidence through victories
We become better communicators
We develop a whole new perspective on life
We learn that our Return on investment (ROI) is often exponential
I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences.
Until next time, friends …
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